Environmental Impact of Agent Orange
THE LOGIC WAS SIMPLE: IF THE ENEMY USES THE TERRAIN TO HIDE WHILE LIVING OFF THE LAND, THEN SPRAY HERBICIDES OVER TREES AND CROPS, TO DEFOLIATE THEM, AND SECURE VICTORY.
Read on to learn more about how the term, "ecocidal warfare," came to be; present-day consequences of wartime uses of herbicides in areas known as "hotspots"; and the early testing period of tactical herbicides in military and manufacturing sites and the long-term impacts there.
Ecocidal Warfare
The destruction and devastation of the verdant, lush tropical-agricultural landscape was so great that the terms “ecological warfare” and “ecocide” were coined, and frequently invoked, to describe what took place in the war’s aftermath ...
Hotspots
It was theorized that there were other such Dioxin-laden areas, later designated “hotspots,” that were primarily former U.S. military-installed bases throughout south Vietnam. These bases were of particular concern, especially bases installed as Operation Ranch Hand hubs ...
Military Sites
As early as 1943, the U.S. military began studying various chemicals’ applications for vegetation control together with the University of Chicago. Then in early 1945, incipient mixtures of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T were first tested by the U.S. military in Florida ...
Manufacturing Sites
Agent Orange-Dioxin contaminated not only areas of south Vietnam, but also where the chemical was manufactured, stored, tested or disposed of, in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world ...