Effects of Agent Orange During the Vietnam War Essay

48. The purpose of Agent Orange was to strip leaves from trees and shrubs to turn lands into wasteland.

Agent orange affected a total of 1.4 million people worldwide and most of their children are still experiencing birth defects from this chemical.

Male Vietnam Veterans and their families believe AO exposure has caused birth defects and certain ailments in their children. There has never been an acknowledgement of AO caused birth defects, except for specific types of Spina Bifida, by the Veterans Affairs. The last “Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2012,” quoted this research

Napalm is a highly flammable sticky jelly used in incendiary bombs and flamethrowers, consisting of gasoline thickened with special soaps, they were very deadly weapons used during the war. Operation Agent Orange is a herbicide and defoliant chemical, one of the tactical use Rainbow Herbicides. This devastating chemical sprayed more than 20 million gallons all over vietnam, Cambodia and laos from 1961 to 1971. The chemical contained these diseases Al Amyloidosis, Chronic B-cell Leukemias, Diabetes Mellitus type 2 and many more diseases but whoever survived this I feel sorry for.

Established on July 21 of 1930, the VA was initially created to assist veterans as they returned home from the second world war(WWII) where they were able to successfully do so. However in a conflict only a few years later, the VA didn’t seem to be able to do as they did in WWII. A very important issue that veterans were having as they returned home and they had after a few years were diseases and conditions related to the use of Agent Orange which according to Charles Schmidt in his paper: The Fog of Agent Orange was “a defoliant sprayed by the U.S. during the Vietnam War to clear dense vegetation and reveal enemy troops.” This defoliant was instrumental to many victories by the Americans and South Vietnamese over the Northern Vietnamese(Viet Cong), however was later found to have many poor effects on those who were in proximity to it when being used. Even worse, as veterans returned home, very few medical conditions were capable of qualifying for financial compensation by the government. According to VA, in the year 1981, six years after the end of the war, the only claim that was accepted to be a result of

Women pass their exposure to their children, both in utero and through the excretion of dioxin in breast milk” (Cohn). It is well known that children are more susceptible to life-threatening infections, diseases, or illness because of their young, sensitive immune systems. Without proper education of the possible side effects of Agent Orange, soldiers were unaware that they could return carrying the hidden marks left behind by the exposure to the herbicide. It was not known by many the true effects that could happen after close encounters to the Agent. Marjorie Cohn, a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and former President of the National Lawyers Guild, explains the secrecy that shrouded Agent Orange and its known health effects. Cohn explains that before the leak of information there was very little concern for United States soldiers. Once the possible health concerns were leaked from a “1965 report, called the Bionetics study, that showed dioxin caused many birth defects in experimental animals” (Cohn). It was not until the results of that study were leaked that the use of Agent Orange/dioxin was stopped” (Cohn). Soldiers could not prepare for what they could and did see once their children were born after returning from the

Agent Orange is a herbicide that was used to defoliate the jungles, meaning the United States military was trying to kill off the trees in Vietnam in order to take away places for North Vietnamese military men could hide (1). The Viet Cong did not fight conventionally against the American military, they could not do so and expect to win. This caused them to resort to guerilla warfare in order to strike and weaken parts of a division or unit. The Americans used Agent Orange as a defense strategy in order to take away hiding places for the Viet Cong to run to after hitting the American units (2). What is especially harmful to those who were around Agent Orange and where it was sprayed was the dioxin, which is a byproduct of one of the chemicals components. People still worked and breathed even with the residue of the toxin still in the air and in the soil, civilians and military personnel alike. The toxin carried in it a carcinogen that got its way into the water and in the soil. Slowly as the years have passed and Vietnam has been hit with a lot of monsoons clean water has washed away the toxic water, but not before it entered into the food chain and then started to accumulate into body fat and tissue in humans that was able to passed from a mother to their child threw breast milk. The American military, by word of the American government, dumped millions of gallons of Agent Orange onto the southern half of

That announcement came too late for many Vietnam War veterans and survivors. In addition to the ethical implications of intentionally eliminating the jungle as a resource, the use of Agent Orange created other side effects for both civilians and American military members. Exposure to Agent Orange has been linked to over fourteen serious health issues, including diabetes and many types of cancer, as well as thousands of birth defects. (Ha) Over the next five years, U.S. veterans began experiencing symptoms, such as asthma, chronic rashes, and various cancers, as well as an increase in the number of children born with Down syndrome or spina bifida due to Agent Orange exposure.

The United States’ poor choices also led to Heart diseases, which can be linked to the exposure to Agent Orange. One potential effect is high blood pressure, which can lead to strokes or heart attacks. Another problem that may arise is little blood flow to the heart—leading to heart failure. Developing problems with muscles is another effect of this dangerous toxin. Victims of Agent Orange may experience difficulty controlling their muscles or lose feeling in their muscles entirely. Soft-tissue Sarcoma, Hodgkin’s disease, Multiple Myeloma, and Peripheral Neuropathy are some other examples of diseases that are linked to Agent

Agent Orange may not have been the first herbicide, however, one could argue that it is the deadliest. Dao Chemical made agent orange in 1943. Taking 2 commonly used herbicides and mixing them together created Agent Orange. They mixed, “2,4-D and 2,4,5-T.” (Agent Orange.” UXL Encyclopedia of Science). Dao Chemical knew how dangerous the chemicals that they were mixing together. There was previous knowledge that2,4,5-T can cause problems in humans, and they only mixed it with something more dangerous: “One chemical used to make Agent Orange was contaminates with a dioxin, TCDD” (Agent Orange.” UXL Encyclopedia of Science). Dioxins are very toxic to humans, animal, and the environment. Once a dioxin is released, the dioxin will remain present in the soil. During the Vietnam War the United Sates army covered over 4 million acres with Agent Orange. During the years, “1962 and 1971, over 10.5 million gallons of Agent Orange were sprayed on Vietnam.” (Agent Orange).

The United States does not want to admit that their used of chemical “as weapons of war on civilian populations violates the laws of war” (). The effort that has been done to compensate those that were exposed is that surviving Vietnam veterans in the United States that were exposed to Agent Orange or other herbicides during their service, may be eligible for VA benefits, such as disability compensation for diseases associated to the exposure, while also their dependents may also be eligible for the benefits. However, the other 3 million surviving Vietnamese victims have not received any compensation or any humanitarian aid from the U.S Government. Also leaving children with birth defects related to Agent Orange effects, without any medical or

During the peak of U.S involvement in the Vietnam War, between 1967 and 1969 the U.S employed a strategy that proved to be a disaster on many different levels. With over 500,000 of their troops serving in Vietnam at the time, the widespread use of herbicides, particularly Agent Orange began being sprayed over the Vietnamese jungle by planes. The aim of this was to eliminate the ‘invisibility' of the Viet Cong and offer a safe path for the American troops to follow. This was a good idea in theory, but what the American strategists didn't think of was the toxicity of the herbicides, and the fact that not only would the Viet Cong be exposed to it, but their troops and innocent South Vietnamese would be also. A widely speculated and argued repercussion of this is that many Vietnam veterans, and Vietnamese villagers began to give birth to babies with birth defects. However, a confirmed result

The destruction this chemical caused to the vegetation should have been the first clue that what destroys nature will in due time destroy us. We are the cause for this mess; but we should have been notified much earlier about the potential risk associated with Agent Orange. According to the Executive Summary on Operations Trail Dust and Ranch Hand, "On April 17,1995 Researchers have found that during the spraying of Agent Orange in southern Vietnam, dioxin levels in human tissue were as high as 900 times greater in Vietnamese living in southern Vietnam than those living in Northern Vietnam where Agent Orange was not used."(Arison5) It was not until 1993, when the Institute of Medicine News reported, "Evidence exists linking three cancers and two other health problems with chemicals used in herbicides used in the Vietnam War, a committee of the Institute of Medicine has concluded. Those diseases are soft tissue sarcoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and Hodgkin's disease as well as chloracne and prophyria cutanea tarda (PCT)."(Turner-Lowe1) An explanation of each disease follows: Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma refers to any group of cancers of lymphoid tissues that multiply. These are found mainly in the lymph nodes and the spleen. The symptoms are related to painless swelling of the lymph nodes in the neck or groin region. There is an attempted

In 1970’s, Monsanto had produced a chemical known as Agent Orange. Agent Orange contained dioxin; a chemical that caused a legal nightmare for Monsanto, a lawsuit was filed against Monsanto on behalf of hundreds of veterans. The repercussions of dioxin would plague the company for years.

The Vietnam War also knows as the second Indochina war began November 1, 1955 and officially ended in April 1975, although many today still are affected by the repercussion of war. During the Vietnam War, Americans were told that spraying millions of acres of dense jungle with Agent Orange would deprive the Viet Cong of cover and save GI’s lives. But in the decade since the herbicides use in Vietnam, the United States has been blamed for creating a human catastrophe among the Vietnamese population and US military veterans. My focus in this paper will be to explore why the effects of a human induced disaster are far worse then the effects of a natural disaster, even though natural disasters often appear more severe and are usually recognized more.