Agent Orange was a mixture of two different herbicides, 24-D and 245-T which was then mixed with either kerosene gas or diesel. This deadly mixture contained the deadly chemical dioxin which led to deformities in offspring and cancer in people exposed. It was 50 times more potent then normal agricultural herbicides meaning it completely destroyed all the plants in the area. Agent Orange got its title from the orange stripe on the 55-gallon drums that it was transported in.
Agent Orange was sprayed from aircraft to kill of growth in the thick Vietnamese jungle. It was apart of the United States strategy to deny the Viet Cong cover and food, there were plans to defoliate large areas of jungle to hamper the movements of the Viet Cong along the borders of Cambodia and Laos which were key for moving troops and supplies. It was also used to deny Vietnamese farmers and guerrilla fighters clean food and water so that they may move to places more heavily controlled by the United States. Spraying of Agent Orange was controlled by the Central Intelligence Agency and begun in 1961. Its use peaked between 1965 and 1967 which was around the same that there were the first reports of birth defects presumed to be due to exposure of Agent Orange. Criticism started to blow up when Vietnam Veterans started reporting a high number of cases of cancer and abnormalities in their offspring which was also blamed on Agent Orange. The Vietnam Red Cross recorded over 4.8 million deaths and 400,000 birth defects in children caused by exposure to the herbicide. It was at this time during the 70s where there was growing criticism in the media about the use of Agent Orange with more veterans coming forward and blaming it on their ill health and health of their children. In the beginning the Australian government denied that their soldiers had been exposed to Agent Orange but later went back on that comment due to the overwhelming evidence. The Vietnam Veterans Association of Australia (VVAA) lobbied hard on the behalf of their members but was lacking evidence for their case. In 1983 under the pressure from the VVAA a Royal Commission was established that would look into the possible health problems of Agent Orange. The commissions report admitted to health problems caused by the herbicide. It didn’t stop there is estimated that between 2.1 and 4.5 million Vietnamese civilians were a exposed and the United States presumes that as many as 2.8 million ‘boots on the ground’ were exposed to Agent Orange during the war. |