Online Encyclopedia
Agent Orange
Agent Orange is code name for a powerful herbicide, defoliant, and chemical weapon used widely by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. Agent Orange was used from 1961 to 1970 and has caused serious harm to the health of both Vietnamese and Americans and their children.
Agent Orange is a roughly 1:1 mixture of the herbicides 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid) and 2,4,5-T (2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid). These herbicides were developed during the 1940s for use in controlling broad-leaf plants. First introduced in 1947, both of these herbicides had widespread use in agriculture by the middle of the 1950s.
During the Vietnam War, Agent Orange's official military purpose was to remove the leaves of trees to prevent guerrilla fighters of the National Liberation Front from hiding. Agent Orange is a colorless liquid: its name was from the color of the stripes on the barrels used to transport it. Other code-named herbicides used by the US Army in moderate to large quantities during this timeframe include Agent Blue (cacodylic acid), Agent White (4:1 mixture of 2,4-D and picloram), Agent Purple , and Agent Pink .
Agent Orange as a military defoliant was discontinued in 1971; 2,4-D continues to be widely used as an herbicide. The use of 2,4,5-T has been banned in the U.S. and many other countries.
Effects on humans
Agent Orange was found to have toxic dioxin breakdown byproducts which have been blamed for causing health disorders and birth defects in both the Vietnamese population and U.S. war veterans. It has also been found to have carcinogenic properties affecting females primarily.
In 1980, New Jersey created the New Jersey Agent Orange Commission, the first state commission created to study its effects. The Commission's research project in association with Rutgers university was called "The Pointman Project ". It was disbanded by governor Christine Todd Whitman in 1996.
An April 2003 report paid for by the National Academy of Sciences concluded that during the Vietnam War, 3,181 villages were sprayed directly with herbicides. Between 2.1 and 4.8 million people "would have been present during the spraying." Furthermore, many U.S. military personnel were also sprayed or came in contact with herbicides in recently sprayed areas. The study was originally undertaken for the U.S. military to get a better count of how many veterans served in sprayed areas. Researchers were given access to military records and Air Force operational folders previously not studied. The re-estimate made by the report places the volume of herbicides sprayed between 1961 and 1971 to a level 7,131,907 liters more than an uncorrected estimate published in 1974 and 9.4 million more liters than a 1974 corrected inventory. It was produced under contract for the Army by Diamond Shamrock, Dow, Hercules, Monsanto, T-H Agricultural & Nutrition, Thompson Chemicals, and Uniroyal.
On January 31, 2004, a Vietnamese victim's rights group, on behalf of three injured persons, filed a lawsuit in a Federal Court in Brooklyn, New York, against several unnamed US companies, for liability in causing personal injury, by developing and producing the chemical. Dow Chemical and Monsanto were the two largest producers of Agent Orange for the US Military. A number of lawsuits by American GI's have been won in the years since the Vietnam War.
External links
- Vietnam dioxin spray estimate quadruples Regarding the 2003 National Academy of Sciences sponsored study.
- Vietnam's war against Agent Orange - the BBC asserts that the effects of Agent Orange are still felt across Vietnam in 2004.
- Vietnam Suing US Chemical Companies "it's not a defense to an allegation of war crimes that your government told you to do it. We know that from the Nuremberg trials,"
- www.vietnam-dioxin.org, an information website on the consequences of Agent Orange and dioxin in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.
Agent Orange is also the name of a short song by singer Tori Amos. It appeared on her 1996 album Boys For Pele. The song has nothing to do with Agent Orange the chemical. It is a nickname given to her long-time bodyguard Joel because of the tan color of his skin.
Agent Orange was also the name of a punk rock band from Orange County, California.
Agent Orange was also the name of a song and album by the thrash metal band Sodom.
Agent Orange is also the name of a song by the group Depeche Mode. The song was named after the herbicide.