agent+orange-jml

Chemicals in Vietnam

There were two really important chemicals in the Vietnam War, and those were Agent Orange and napalm. Don’t get me wrong, there were plenty of other chemicals in Vietnam, but I just chose not to focus on them. Let’s start with the defoliant, Agent Orange.

Agent Orange was a defoliant used to destroy the crops and foliage in Vietnam. This was useful for two reasons. One, it gave the enemy less places to hide in combat, making them easy to identify for our troops. Second, it destroyed the crops that were feeding the Vietnamese troops. Operation RANCH HAND was a campaign to spray defoliants (such as Agent Orange) all over Vietnam between January 1962 and January 1971. The peak was in 1967, and at this point, we had 6,847 sorties, 4.8 million gallons of herbicides dropped, 60% agent orange, defoliated 1.2 million acres of land, and destroyed 148,000 acres of crops. This may seem like a huge success, but they had some problems, actually, a lot.

Operation RANCH HAND was under funded. Agent Orange actually was a very cheap agent. They were using more effective agents before, but they were too expensive. The U.S. actually preempted civilian purchase of defoliants. This was actually the first preemption of a product since the nylon preempt in World War II. Agent Orange was sprayed from low-flying, slow-moving planes. This required good pilots, state-of-the art equipment, good support, and protective escort flights. All of these things were extremely scarce. Also, commanders, out of fear for their troops, banned RANCH HAND from certain areas. On top of all this, some pilots had to remove from the operation to work on other things, such as airlifting and insecticide spraying, and, even baiting the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong gunners. Because of these distractions, the 1,200 volunteers for operation RANCH HAND were the most shot-at and decorated unit of the U.S. air force. Many of the medals were purple hearts.

Agent Orange caused much controversy in the U.S., as it was a chemical, and that we were waging chemical warfare (CW). The U.S. had banned CW during WW II, but many complained that the use of Agent Orange was waging chemical warfare. This issue eventually reached the U.N. in 1969. In December of that year, the U.N. resolved that the use of chemicals, including herbicides, violated international law. The U.S. countered saying this issue was outside the general assembly’s scope of authority. But, in August of 1971, the U.S. and the Soviet Union signed a treaty banning the use of biological weapons. This also led to disarmament in the late 1980’s.

Not only did Agent Orange violate a treaty, but also it affected the health of many veterans. Scientists had seen a usually high rate of birth defects, cancers, and malformations among Vietnamese civilians who had been exposed to Agent Orange. They were not the only ones affected, however. Many veterans had developed certain types of cancer scientists believe may have been from exposure to Agent Orange. This led to a ban of the main ingredients in herbicides. In 1977, the last U.S. herbicides were destroyed. That same year, the publicity of illnesses among veterans led to many groups being formed. This controversy was settled by a 1984 out-of –court settlement between the herbicide company and the veterans. The $180 million settlement averaged out to about $1,000 per veteran. In 1985, the U.S. government contributed an extra $1 billion for related research.

Now for napalm. Napalm is an aluminum salt or soap mixture of naphthenic and aliphatic carboxylic acids. These were used to thicken gasoline. Napalm burns slower and can be propelled father and more accurately than gasoline. Napalm is also used as a pyrothetic gel containing gasoline and less volatile oil, powder magnesium, and sodium nitrate. No matter type you use, napalm will always burn at about 2,000 degrees F.

This weapon was developed by scientists during WW II. In Vietnam, U.S. forces used napalm as aerial bombs, for defoliation, tactical bombings, and ground support. Napalm kills by asphyxiation, or sucking all of the oxygen out of the air, and creating lethal amounts of carbon monoxide. This weapon was very effective, but was indiscriminate.

Although napalm caused major casualties to enemy troops, it also severely injured or killed many civilians. Publications as diverse as Rampart and Ladies Home Journal were talking about the cruelty of napalm. Protestors at the New York office of the main napalm manufacturer, the Dow Company, were concerning them. Later, there were many protests at other Dow Company locations around the nation. Students at the University of Michigan started protesting when the Dow Company tried to recruit students. Many more protests similar to these were organized by Students of a Democratic Society (SDS).

There was one specific image that shaped many Americans views on napalm, mostly for the worst. In June, 1972, there was an image of a naked Vietnamese girl running down the road after a napalm attack on her village. This is considered as one of the most enduring images of the Vietnam War. Despite all of this controversy, napalm continued to be used in the war in Vietnam.

As you can see, chemicals played a big role in the Vietnam War. Agent Orange exposed the enemy and took away their food, while napalm burned the forests and their troops. Event if using these chemicals violated certain international laws, and was a little immoral, without them, we would not have stood a chance in Vietnam.