Napalm was used from about 1965 to 1970 in the Vietnam War. Napalm is made from a mixture of naphthenic and palmitic acids with gasoline. It is a jelly like substance that will stick to any substance and burn for up to ten minutes. It was considered one of the most successful weapons and it is estimated that over 388,000 tons of napalm was dropped in Vietnam.
Napalm was first used in flamethrowers by United States ground troops and was also fired off river boats to burn down sections of forest and bushes in hope to get rid of any Guerrilla fighters. It was also very effective ay clearing out bunkers, even if it did not penetrate the bunker it still consumed all the oxygen and suffocated those inside. It was also used for destroying enemy villages.
As the war progressed the US began dropping Napalm bomb from aircraft. A single napalm bomb was much more devastating than the flamethrowers; a single bomb would light up an area of 2500 square metres in flame. The downside was that dropping bombs from aircraft wasn’t always so accurate and caused the deaths of many civilians.
Napalm had a devastating affect on people who came into contact with it. Burning at around 800oC to 1200oC it melted of the flesh leaving a wound to deep to heal; it caused unimaginable pain for the victims and sometimes led to unconsciousness, asphyxiation and often death. Even bystanders were at risk of dying from carbon monoxide poisoning. The only way to put it out was to smother it with something, trying to wipe it off only caused it to spread which inflicted more damage on people. Kim Phuc who is a survivor of a napalm bombing said “napalm is the most terrible thing you can imagine”
Before the Vietnam War the brutality of napalm was censored by the government. However in Vietnam is exposed on a massive scale by the media. Thousands of pictures and videos about the devastation that napalm caused were reported daily by the media. This includes the photo of the “napalm girl”, a photo of a young girl whose clothes and skin were melting off her due to the effects of napalm. It was taken after a Napalm attack on her village and she can be seen running down the street amongst others.
With the media constantly showing the pain caused by napalm the stronger the antiwar movement grew. In 1966 there were the first reports of riots in the United States. The company who had manufactured napalm for the United States army were boycotted all around the country. The Dow chemical company had been labelled by the public as “baby killers”.
In 1980 the United Nations put a ban on using napalm near large concentrations of civilians due to its brutality although napalm continued to be used in Iraq (1980-88, 1991), Angola (1993) and in Yugoslavia (1991-96).
Napalm was first used in flamethrowers by United States ground troops and was also fired off river boats to burn down sections of forest and bushes in hope to get rid of any Guerrilla fighters. It was also very effective ay clearing out bunkers, even if it did not penetrate the bunker it still consumed all the oxygen and suffocated those inside. It was also used for destroying enemy villages.
As the war progressed the US began dropping Napalm bomb from aircraft. A single napalm bomb was much more devastating than the flamethrowers; a single bomb would light up an area of 2500 square metres in flame. The downside was that dropping bombs from aircraft wasn’t always so accurate and caused the deaths of many civilians.
Napalm had a devastating affect on people who came into contact with it. Burning at around 800oC to 1200oC it melted of the flesh leaving a wound to deep to heal; it caused unimaginable pain for the victims and sometimes led to unconsciousness, asphyxiation and often death. Even bystanders were at risk of dying from carbon monoxide poisoning. The only way to put it out was to smother it with something, trying to wipe it off only caused it to spread which inflicted more damage on people. Kim Phuc who is a survivor of a napalm bombing said “napalm is the most terrible thing you can imagine”
Before the Vietnam War the brutality of napalm was censored by the government. However in Vietnam is exposed on a massive scale by the media. Thousands of pictures and videos about the devastation that napalm caused were reported daily by the media. This includes the photo of the “napalm girl”, a photo of a young girl whose clothes and skin were melting off her due to the effects of napalm. It was taken after a Napalm attack on her village and she can be seen running down the street amongst others.
With the media constantly showing the pain caused by napalm the stronger the antiwar movement grew. In 1966 there were the first reports of riots in the United States. The company who had manufactured napalm for the United States army were boycotted all around the country. The Dow chemical company had been labelled by the public as “baby killers”.
In 1980 the United Nations put a ban on using napalm near large concentrations of civilians due to its brutality although napalm continued to be used in Iraq (1980-88, 1991), Angola (1993) and in Yugoslavia (1991-96).