Editing Agent Orange (section)

==Use in the Vietnam War==
[[File:Aerial-herbicide-spray-missions-in-Southern-Vietnam--1965-1971.jpg|thumb|Map showing locations of U.S. Army aerial herbicide spray missions in [[South Vietnam]] taking place from 1965 to 1971]]
In mid-1961, President [[Ngo Dinh Diem]] of South Vietnam asked the United States to help defoliate the lush jungle that was providing cover to his enemies.<ref>{{Cite web|date=2016-04-13|title=Why Hasn't The Government Learned Anything From The Agent Orange Health Crisis?|url=https://taskandpurpose.com/health-fitness/hasnt-government-learned-anything-agent-orange-health-crisis/|access-date=2022-02-12|website=Task & Purpose|language=en-US}}</ref>{{sfn|Buckingham|1982|p=11–12}} In August of that year, the [[Republic of Vietnam Air Force]] conducted herbicide operations with American help. Diem's request launched a policy debate in the [[White House]] and the [[State Department|State]] and [[United States Department of Defense|Defense Departments]]. Many U.S. officials supported herbicide operations, pointing out that the British had already used herbicides and defoliants in Malaya during the 1950s. In November 1961, Kennedy authorized the start of [[Operation Ranch Hand]], the codename for the [[United States Air Force]]'s herbicide program in Vietnam. The herbicide operations were formally directed by the government of South Vietnam.<ref name="Lewy"/>

During the Vietnam War, between 1962 and 1971, the United States military sprayed nearly {{convert|20,000,000|U.S.gal|abbr=on}} of various chemicals – the "[[rainbow herbicides]]" and defoliants – in Vietnam, eastern Laos, and parts of Cambodia as part of Operation Ranch Hand, reaching its peak from 1967 to 1969. For comparison purposes, an olympic size pool holds approximately {{convert|660,000|U.S.gal|abbr=on}}.{{sfn|Pellow|2007|p=159}}{{sfn|Stellman|Stellman|Christian|Weber|2003}}<ref name="Haberman"/> As the British did in Malaya, the goal of the U.S. was to defoliate rural/forested land, depriving guerrillas of food and concealment and clearing sensitive areas such as around base perimeters and possible ambush sites along roads and canals.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |editor-last=Tucker |editor-first=Spencer C. |encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of the Vietnam War: A Political, Social, and Military History |publisher=ABC-CLIO |date=1997 |title=Agent Orange}}</ref><ref name="Lewy"/> [[Samuel P. Huntington]] argued that the program was also part of a policy of [[forced draft urbanization]], which aimed to destroy the ability of peasants to support themselves in the countryside, forcing them to flee to the U.S.-dominated cities, depriving the guerrillas of their rural support base.<ref name="foreign-affairs-article">{{cite journal|last=Huntington|first=Samuel P.|date=July 1968|title=The Bases of Accommodation|journal=Foreign Affairs|volume=46|issue=4|pages=642–656 |doi=10.2307/20039333|jstor=20039333}}</ref>

[[File:US-troops-spray-Agent-Orange-from-riverboat-Vietnam.ogv|thumbtime=16|thumb|left|alt=Video of U.S. troops spraying Agent Orange from a riverboat in Vietnam|Military film footage of U.S. troops spraying Agent Orange from a riverboat in Vietnam in February 1969]]
Agent Orange was usually sprayed from helicopters or from low-flying [[C-123 Provider]] aircraft, fitted with sprayers and "MC-1 Hourglass" pump systems and {{convert|1,000|U.S.gal|abbr=on}} chemical tanks. Spray runs were also conducted from trucks, boats, and backpack sprayers.{{sfn|Schuck|1987|p=16}}<ref name="acs">{{cite web |url=https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/agent-orange-and-cancer.html |title=Agent Orange and Cancer |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191201080707/http://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/agent-orange-and-cancer.html |archive-date=2019-12-01 |url-status=live |publisher=American Cancer Society |date=2019-02-11}}</ref>{{sfn|Young|2009|p=26}} Altogether, over {{convert|80,000,000|L|abbr=on}} of Agent Orange were applied.<ref>[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55795651 Vietnam War: French court to hear landmark Agent Orange case] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210503131409/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55795651 |date=May 3, 2021}}, ''BBC News'', January 25, 2021</ref>

The first batch of herbicides was unloaded at [[Tan Son Nhut Air Base]] in South Vietnam, on January 9, 1962.{{sfn|Hay|1982|p=151}} U.S. Air Force records show at least 6,542 spraying missions took place over the course of Operation Ranch Hand.{{sfn|Furukawa|2004|p=143}} By 1971, 12 percent of the total area of South Vietnam had been sprayed with defoliating chemicals, at an average concentration of 13 times the recommended [[U.S. Department of Agriculture]] application rate for domestic use.{{sfn|Stanford Biology Study Group|1971|p=36}} In South Vietnam alone, an estimated {{convert|39,000|sqmi|abbr=on}} of agricultural land was ultimately destroyed.{{sfn|Luong|2003|p=3}} In some areas, TCDD concentrations in soil and water were hundreds of times greater than the levels considered safe by the EPA.<ref name="fawthrop-war-against">{{cite news |last=Fawthrop |first=Tom |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3798581.stm |title=Vietnam's war against Agent Orange |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191110092114/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3798581.stm |archive-date=2019-11-10 |work=BBC News |date=June 14, 2004}}</ref><ref name="fawthrop-suffering">{{cite news |last=Fawthrop |first=Tom |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/feb/10/agentofsuffering |title=Agent of Suffering |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190830050406/https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2008/feb/10/agentofsuffering |archive-date=2019-08-30 |work=The Guardian |date=February 10, 2008}}</ref>

The campaign destroyed {{convert|20,000|sqkm|abbr=on}} of upland and mangrove forests and thousands of square kilometres of crops.<ref name="The New York Times" /> Overall, more than 20% of South Vietnam's forests were sprayed at least once over the nine-year period.{{sfn|Kolko|1994|p=144–145}}{{sfn|Verwey|1977|p=113}} 3.2% of South Vietnam's cultivated land was sprayed at least once between 1965 and 1971. 90% of herbicide use was directed at defoliation.<ref name="Lewy"/>

The U.S. military began targeting food crops in October 1962, primarily using [[Agent Blue]]; the American public was not made aware of the crop destruction programs until 1965 (and it was then believed that crop spraying had begun that spring). In 1965, 42% of all herbicide spraying was dedicated to food crops. In 1965, members of the [[U.S. Congress]] were told, "crop destruction is understood to be the more important purpose&nbsp;... but the emphasis is usually given to the jungle defoliation in public mention of the program." The first official acknowledgment of the programs came from the State Department in March 1966.{{sfn|Kolko|1994|p=144–145}}{{sfn|Verwey|1977|p=111–113}}

When crops were destroyed, the Viet Cong would compensate for the loss of food by confiscating more food from local villages.<ref name="Lewy"/> Some military personnel reported being told they were destroying crops used to feed guerrillas, only to later discover, most of the destroyed food was actually produced to support the local civilian population. For example, according to Wil Verwey, 85% of the crop lands in Quang Ngai province were scheduled to be destroyed in 1970 alone. He estimated this would have caused famine and left hundreds of thousands of people without food or malnourished in the province.{{sfn|Verwey|1977|p=116}} According to a report by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the herbicide campaign had disrupted the food supply of more than 600,000 people by 1970.<ref name="Turse"/>

Many experts at the time, including [[plant physiologist]] and [[Bioethics|bioethicist]] [[Arthur Galston]], opposed herbicidal warfare because of concerns about the side effects to humans and the environment by indiscriminately spraying the chemical over a wide area. As early as 1966, resolutions were introduced to the [[United Nations]] charging that the U.S. was violating the 1925 [[Geneva Protocol]], which regulated the use of [[chemical weapon|chemical]] and [[biological agent|biological weapons]] in international conflicts. The U.S. defeated most of the resolutions,<ref name="galston-light">{{cite magazine |last=Peterson |first=Doug |url=http://www.las.illinois.edu/alumni/magazine/articles/2004/galston |title=Matters of Light: Arthur W. Galston |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100618152658/http://www.las.illinois.edu/alumni/magazine/articles/2004/galston/ |archive-date=2010-06-18 |magazine=LASNews Magazine |publisher=[[University of Illinois]] |date=Spring 2005}}</ref>{{sfn|Schuck|1987|p=19}} arguing that Agent Orange was not a chemical or a biological weapon as it was considered a herbicide and a defoliant and it was used in effort to destroy plant crops and to deprive the enemy of concealment and not meant to target human beings. The U.S. delegation argued that a weapon, by definition, is any device used to injure, defeat, or destroy living beings, structures, or systems, and Agent Orange did not qualify under that definition. It also argued that if the U.S. were to be charged for using Agent Orange, then the United Kingdom and its Commonwealth nations should be charged since they also used it widely during the [[Malayan Emergency]] in the 1950s.<ref>{{cite book |title=When Technology Fails: Significant Technological Disasters, Accidents, and Failures of the Twentieth Century |year=1994 |page=104 |last=Schlager |first=Neil |publisher=Gale Research}}</ref> In 1969, the United Kingdom commented on the draft Resolution 2603 (XXIV):<blockquote>The evidence seems to us to be notably inadequate for the assertion that the use in war of chemical substances specifically toxic to plants is prohibited by [[international law]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_cou_gb_rule76|title=United States of America: Practice Relating to Rule 76. Herbicides|website=Customary IHL Database |publisher=[[International Committee of the Red Cross]]|access-date=2017-03-29|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140301101751/http://www.icrc.org/customary-ihl/eng/docs/v2_cou_gb_rule76|archive-date=2014-03-01|url-status=live}}</ref> </blockquote>The [[environmental destruction]] caused by this defoliation has been described by Swedish Prime Minister [[Olof Palme]], lawyers, historians and other academics as an [[ecocide]].<ref name="Zierler 2011"/><ref name="ijllr.com"/><ref name="Falk 1973 80–96"/><ref name="theleaflet.in"/><ref name="Giovanni"/>

A study carried out by the Bionetic Research Laboratories between 1965 and 1968 found malformations in test animals caused by 2,4,5-T, a component of Agent Orange. The study was later brought to the attention of the White House in October 1969. Other studies reported similar results and the Department of Defense began to reduce the herbicide operation. On April 15, 1970, it was announced that the use of Agent Orange was suspended. Two brigades of the [[Americal Division]] in the summer of 1970 continued to use Agent Orange for crop destruction in violation of the suspension. An investigation led to disciplinary action against the brigade and division commanders because they had falsified reports to hide its use. Defoliation and crop destruction were completely stopped by June 30, 1971.<ref name="Lewy">Lewy, Guenter (1978), ''America in Vietnam'', New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 263</ref>

<gallery mode="packed" caption="Gallery">
File:Agent-Orange--stack-of-55-gallon-drums.jpg|Stacks of {{convert|200|L|abbr=on}} drums containing Agent Orange.
File:'Ranch Hand' run.jpg|Defoliant spray run, part of [[Operation Ranch Hand]], during the [[Vietnam War]] by [[C-123 Provider|UC-123B Provider]] aircraft.
File:US-Army-APC-spraying-Agent-Orange-in-Vietnam.jpg|U.S. Army [[armored personnel carrier]] (APC) spraying Agent Orange over Vietnamese rice fields during the [[Vietnam War]].
File:Defoliation agent spraying.jpg|A [[UH-1D]] helicopter from the [[336th Aviation Company]] sprays a defoliation agent over farmland in the [[Mekong Delta]].
File:VA042083 River Bank Defoliation.jpg|U.S. Army Operations In Vietnam: River bank defoliation
File:Agent Orange Cropdusting.jpg|A U.S. Air Force [[Fairchild C-123 Provider]] aircraft crop-dusting in Vietnam during [[Operation Ranch Hand]].
File:UC-123B Ranch Hand spraying 1962.jpg|A [[Fairchild C-123 Provider]] aircraft spraying defoliant in South Vietnam in 1962.
File:Ranch Hand UC-123 clearing a roadside in central South Vietnam in 1966.JPG|Ranch Hand UC-123 clearing a roadside in central South Vietnam in 1966.
File:110303-F-XN622-007 U.S. Air Force aircraft spraying defoliant.JPG|U.S. Air Force aircraft spraying defoliant
File:VA002930 Spraying Agent Orange in Mekong Delta near Can Tho.jpg|Spraying Agent Orange in Mekong Delta near Can Tho, 1969
</gallery>