Defoliant

As part of the Vietnam war, the U.S. military sprayed 12.1 gallons of Agent Orange defoliant on trees and vegetation in Vietnam. This so-called toxic chemical is mixed with other varieties of herbicides used for removing trees and dense tropical foliage that provided cover the Vietnam troops. Much of agent orange contains dioxin, which is a highly dangerous and toxic chemical, known to cause “reproductive and developmental problems, disruption of the immune system, interference with hormones and cancer,” according to World Health Organization, a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health. The U.S. Department of Defense developed these tactical herbicides specifically to be used in “combat operations.”…

500 acres of land used for crops, and this land has been in the family for generations. One day it all changed, all the land became useless and frail, and the family risked starvation and poverty. What happened? The answer was simple, Agent Orange. During the Vietnam War, new chemicals called defoliants were being used as a tactic for military purposes. One of the most common defoliants used was called Agent Orange. These defoliants were used as harmful chemical herbicides to denature the trees…

When it comes to war, armies must sometimes introduce an alternative plan in order to gain the upper hand over the enemy. When the Americans were at war with the Vietnamese decades ago, they planned to use herbicides as a new strategic asset against their adversaries. By spraying defoliating agents over the forests of Vietnam, hidden enemies would be exposed, and the crops that they harvested as food would also be destroyed. In 1962, defoliation missions ordered by the U.S. military commenced,…

Agent Orange is a herbicide and defoliant chemical, one of the tactical use of Rainbow Herbicides. It is widely known for its use by the U.S military as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971. It is a mixture of equal parts of two herbicides,trichlorophenoxyacetic acid, and dichlorophenoxyacetic acid. In addition to its damaging environmental effects, the chemical has caused major health problems for many individuals who were…

The United States was using a defoliant known as Agent Orange that was used to eliminate tree cover and crops that were beneficial to the North Vietnamese. Agent Orange was an extremely powerful herbicide that later proved to cause serious health problems, such as tumors, rashes, birth defects, and cancer among both troops and Vietnamese citizens. From 1961 to 1972, four-and-a-half million gallons of the defoliant were poured over nineteen million acres of Vietnamese land. In addition to the…

Agent Orange was part of the US’s strategy against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese. Agent Orange was a powerful mixture of chemical defoliants used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops, as well as crops that might be used to feed them. The U.S. Operation Ranch Hand, sprayed more than 19 million gallons of herbicides over 4.5 million acres of land in Vietnam from 1961 to 1972. The chemical was later revealed to…

rise of communism and feared that it would eventually destroy not only their country, but also others around it. By the end of the World War II, countries such as East Germany, China, North Korea, and Cuba had all fallen to Communism (Caputo 22). To many, “it looked as if Communists might be successful in their often stated goal to take over the world (Caputo 22).” Therefore, the United States government believed that “if the Viet Minh took over all of Vietnam, Communism would infiltrate the…

Whilst having aided the growth of society, technological advances have also helped to negatively debase its moral development. Agent Orange was a chemical meant to accelerate the growth rate of soybeans. In the future this technological advance in high quantity became a herbicide and a defoliant, the opposite of its original purpose. During the Vietnam war, 77 million liters of it were used by the U.S. Military as a weapon against the Vietnamese. Over four hundred thousand Vietnamese people…

Throughout the course of human history, war and conflict have brought about unconventional and often controversial methods and tactics. From the unprecedented uprising that was the American Revolution, to the invasion of Mexico in 1846, to the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the United States has no doubt seen its own fair share of controversy surrounding wartime decisions. The Vietnam conflict was no different. After initially offering France support in Vietnam, the United…

was used to silently kill an individual. The first modern use of chemical warfare was during the reign of King Henry III. In a war against the French, the English used calcium oxide to blind their enemies, and defeat them. The industrialization of chemical warfare started during World War One. The Allies and Axis both mass-produced gases such as mustard gas and phosgene gas. In World War One alone, chemical weapons caused 91,000 deaths. The gas chambers of the Holocaust took about twenty minutes…