Editing Herbicide (section)

=== Use politically, militarily, and in conflict ===
{{main|Rainbow herbicide|Herbicidal warfare}}
[[File:A vietnamese Professor is pictured with a group of handicapped children.jpg|thumb|Handicapped children in [[Vietnam]], most of them victims of [[Agent Orange]], 2004]]

Although herbicidal warfare uses [[chemical substance]]s, its main purpose is to disrupt agricultural food production or to destroy plants which provide cover or concealment to the enemy. During the [[Malayan Emergency]], [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]] forces deployed herbicides and [[defoliant]]s in the Malaysian countryside in order to deprive [[Malayan National Liberation Army]] (MNLA) insurgents of cover, potential sources of food and to flush them out of the jungle. Deployment of herbicides and defoliants served the dual purpose of thinning jungle trails to prevent ambushes and destroying crop fields in regions where the MNLA was active to deprive them of potential sources of food. As part of this process, herbicides and defoliants were also sprayed from [[Royal Air Force]] aircraft.<ref name="MAY">{{cite book |title=The Global Politics of Pesticides: Forging Consensus from Conflicting Interests |page=61 |author=Bruce Cumings |year=1998 |publisher=[[Earthscan]]}}</ref> 

The use of herbicides as a chemical weapon by the [[United States Armed Forces|U.S. military]] during the [[Vietnam War]] has left tangible, long-term [[Impact of Agent Orange in Vietnam|impacts upon the Vietnamese people]] and U.S soldiers that handled the chemicals.<ref>{{cite news |title=The legacy of Agent Orange |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4494347.stm |work=BBC News |date=29 April 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/12/us/agent-oranges-long-legacy-for-vietnam-and-veterans.html|title=Agent Orange's Long Legacy, for Vietnam and Veterans|newspaper=The New York Times|date=11 May 2014|last1=Haberman|first1=Clyde}}</ref> More than 20% of South Vietnam's forests and 3.2% of its cultivated land were sprayed at least once between during the war.<ref name="Lewy">Lewy, Guenter (1978), ''America in Vietnam'', New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 263</ref> The government of Vietnam says that up to four million people in [[Vietnam]] were exposed to the defoliant, and as many as three million people have suffered illness because of Agent Orange,<ref name="The Washington Post">{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/14/AR2007061401077_4.html |last=Stocking |first=Ben |title=Agent Orange Still Haunts Vietnam, US|date=2007-06-14 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=2021-12-20 |language=en-US |issn=0190-8286 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170330083914/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/14/AR2007061401077_4.html |archive-date=2017-03-30|url-status=live}}</ref> while the [[Viet Nam Red Cross Society]] estimates that up to one million people were disabled or have health problems as a result of exposure to Agent Orange.<ref name="Jessica King">{{cite news |url=https://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/10/world/asia/vietnam-us-agent-orange/ |title=U.S. in first effort to clean up Agent Orange in Vietnam |first=Jessica |last=King |date=2012-08-10 |access-date=2021-12-20 |work=[[CNN]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130303060725/http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/10/world/asia/vietnam-us-agent-orange |archive-date=2013-03-03 |url-status=live }}</ref> The United States government has described these figures as unreliable.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{cite encyclopedia |title=Defoliation |editor-last=Tucker|editor-first=Spencer C.|encyclopedia=The Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War : a Political, Social, and Military History|year=2011|publisher=ABC-CLIO|isbn=978-1-85109-961-0|edition=2nd}}</ref>