manteiv

The VietnamWar and Agent Orange

● Briefly summarize why and how the United States became involved in the

VietnamWar.

● Analyze how the VietnamWar heightened the United States’ social, political,

and economic tensions. Focus your answer on the period of 1964–1975.

● Explain how the civil rights movement and the VietnamWarwere connected.

● Assess if waging war is an effective way to spread democracy. Do you think the

VietnamWar can be justified?

● Evaluate the use and effects of Agent Orange influenced the VietnamWar.

● Length: 4 pages (not including title page and references page)

● 1-inchmargins

● Double spaced

● 12-point Times NewRoman font

● Title page

● References page

● In-text citations that correspondwith your end reference

12/15/24, 12:12 AMHistory - Article - Agent Orange

Page 1 of 3https://online-infobase-com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/HRC/LearningCenter/Details/2?articleId=208098

Help My Research

More History Resources | More Infobase ResourcesAmerican History Search

Home Browse Curriculum Tools Search Options Sources

Access provided by:

Back

Save Print Share Download Citation Read Aloud Save to Drive

Agent Orange       

Agent Orange, named a!er the color-coded stripe painted around the 55-gallon barrels in which it was stored, was a 50/50 combination of two commercial herbicides, 2-4-D and 2,4,5-T. Designed to kill triple canopy jungles, Agent Orange was tested in Vietnam in 1961 in the early stages of the Vietnam War. It worked so well that by 1962 the military commenced a program of systematically defoliating millions of acres of Vietnam's jungles, mangrove forests, and croplands. The South Vietnamese government cooperated fully with the defoliation campaign. Scientists familiar with the massive destruction of Vietnam's natural habitat call the damage "ecocide."

Agent Orange contained TCDD-dioxin, one of the most deadly chemicals in existence. At the height of the defoliation campaign in Vietnam, scientists at Bionetics Laboratories of Bethesda, Maryland, discovered that even in the lowest doses given, 2,4,5-T, the herbicide contaminated with TCDD-dioxin, causes cle! palates, missing and deformed eyes, cystic kidneys, and enlarged livers in the o"spring of laboratory animals. This study was instrumental in convincing the military to stop using Agent Orange in Vietnam in 1970. By then, the U.S. Air Force had already sprayed 12 million gallons of Agent Orange over 5 million acres, an area about the size of Massachusetts.

As early as 1967 Vietnamese peasants living near spray missions were complaining of miscarriages, skin rashes, sick and dying farm animals, and the sudden death of weak and elderly people. More than 35 years a!er the Air Force flew its last spray mission in Vietnam ex-soldiers from Vietnam, the United States, South Korea, New Zealand, and Canada continue to su"er from a wide variety of debilitating illnesses, including cancers, kidney failure, and heart problems, related to their exposure to Agent Orange.

The Department of Veterans A"airs now recognizes a number of illnesses as grounds for service-

12/15/24, 12:12 AMHistory - Article - Agent Orange

Page 2 of 3https://online-infobase-com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/HRC/LearningCenter/Details/2?articleId=208098

connected disability. However, there are no accurate records of the number of men and women who are permanently disabled from exposure to Agent Orange. Approximately 220,000 Vietnam veterans, suspecting their illnesses are related to Agent Orange, have applied to the Veterans Administration for physical examinations.

In 1978 a 28-year-old Vietnam veteran who had been exposed to Agent Orange shocked the nation by announcing: "I died in Vietnam but I didn't even know it." Before he succumbed that same year to cancer of the colon, liver, and abdomen, Paul Reuthersahn initiated a lawsuit against Dow Chemical and other wartime manufacturers of Agent Orange. At the time, the Agent Orange class action was the largest class action and product liability lawsuit in U.S. history. It was settled out of court on May 7, 1984, for $180 million. Under the terms of the agreement, a totally disabled veteran would receive $12,000 spread out over 10 years. The average expected payout was $5,700, and the maximum death benefit was set at $34,000.

In February 1979 the Environmental Protection Agency issued an order of emergency suspension for 2,4,5-T. In 2004 Vietnamese Agent Orange victims launched a class action suit charging chemical manufacturers of Agent Orange with war crimes. The industrialized world remains inundated with dioxin and other deadly chemicals that attack the human immune system, disabling, crippling, and killing untold numbers of people. The history of Agent Orange o"ers a stark example of the connection between war, toxic chemicals, and disability.

Further Information

Brown, Michael. Laying Waste: The Poisoning of America by Toxic Chemicals. New York: Pantheon, 1980.

Linedecker, Cli"ord. Kerry: Agent Orange and an American Family. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1982.

Wilcox, Fred A. Waiting for an Army to Die: The Tragedy of Agent Orange. New York: Random House, 1983.

RECORD URL

https://chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https%3a%2f%2fonline.infobase.com%2fAuth%2fIndex%3faid%3d239824%26itemid%3dWE52%26articleId%3d208098

12/15/24, 12:12 AMHistory - Article - Agent Orange

Page 3 of 3https://online-infobase-com.chamberlainuniversity.idm.oclc.org/HRC/LearningCenter/Details/2?articleId=208098

Record Information

From: Encyclopedia of American Disability History

By: Fred A. Wilcox

Published: 2009 [Last updated: 2018]

Record Type: Encyclopedia Entry

Tags

1,4-Dioxin 2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid A!ermath of the Vietnam War Agent Orange Chemistry Dioxin

Dow Chemical Company Herbicides Organochlorides Vietnam veteran Vietnam War War

Home

Advanced Search

Search By Standards

My Preferences

Saved Items

Saved Searches

About Infobase

Learning

Terms of Use

Privacy Policy

Help

How To Cite

Contact Us

Select Language ▼

Copyright © 2024 Infobase Learning. All Rights Reserved.