Chemical Warfare during the Vietnam War
The most controversial tactic that was ever used by the U.S. military
troop was their use of chemical warfare. They widely used herbicides to
remove plant covers in large enemy lines. These chemical however, did
not just kill plants, they have drastically changed landscapes, caused
diseases, caused birth defects and poisoned the food chain in the areas
where they sprayed and its nearby communities.
PAVN/NALF activities were usually hidden by the triple-canopy jungles
and its undergrowth that makes it difficult for US forces to find them.
The military then decided that it might be wise to “defoliate” the areas
that surround base camps. The mission was called “Operation
Ranch Hand.”
The corporations of Dow and Monsanto developed different herbicides such
as Agent Green, Agent Pink, Agent Blue, Agent White, Agent Purple and
the famous Agent Orange, which is dioxin-contaminated. Recent eliminated
Agent Orange as the most toxic among them all because of its dioxin
content. During their operations, around 12 million gallons of Agent
Orange was sprayed over this area of Southeast Asia. Moreover, their
most targeted are was the Mekong Delta. This is where their US Navy
boats are most vulnerable from attack at the water edges.
The Kennedy administration authorized the use of chemical weapons to
destroy rice crops. US helicopters then started spraying herbicides on
Mekong Delta. This resulted to affecting 6 million acres of rich land
that is around 13% of the total land area in Southern Vietnam with 20
million gallons of concentrated herbicides. Since this body of water is
connected to the majority of water sources in the Southern Vietnam,
herbicides were easily transported to these areas, thus affecting more
living things. It was concluded that thousand of peasants and livestock
died because of the sprays. Worst, up to half a million Vietnamese
children were born with dioxin-related abnormalities and deformities.
Just a few years back, the Vietnamese government estimated that there
is around 4million victims of dioxin poisoning in Vietnam. This is being
denied by the US government in spite the fact that dioxin levels in some
areas remains over 100 times than the accepted international standard.
The U.S. Veterans Administration has listed prostate cancer, respiratory
cancers, multiple myeloma, chloracne, type II diabetes, peripheral
neuropathy, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, soft tissue
sarcoma, porphyria cutanea tarda, and spina bifida in children of war
veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange as possible side effects of
their parent's exposure to the herbicides. Discussions are continuously
being done regarding the use of the chemicals, in this case defoliants,
as violation of the laws of war. They are still not being considered as
weapons because they did not cause immediate death and incapacitation.
This is the claim of the US government yet the children of Vietnam shows
otherwise.
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