Agent Orange is a chemical herbicide and defoliant, one of the tactical use Rainbow Herbicides.
Operation Ranch Hand was a U.S. military operation during the Vietnam War, lasting from 1962 until 1971. Largely inspired by the British use of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s, it was part of the overall herbicidal warfare program during the war called "Operation Trail Dust". Ranch Hand involved spraying an estimated 19 million U.S. gallons (72,000 m3) of defoliants and herbicides over rural areas of South Vietnam in an attempt to deprive the Viet Cong of food and vegetation cover. Areas of Laos and Cambodia were also sprayed to a lesser extent. According to the Vietnamese government, the chemicals caused 400,000 deaths. The United States government has described these figures as unreliable.
Estimates of casualties of the Vietnam War vary widely. Estimates can include both civilian and military deaths in North and South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.
Herbicidal warfare is the use of substances primarily designed to destroy the plant-based ecosystem of an area. Although herbicidal warfare use chemical substances, its main purpose is to disrupt agricultural food production and/or to destroy plants which provide cover or concealment to the enemy, not to asphyxiate or poison humans and/or destroy human-made structures. Herbicidal warfare has been forbidden by the Environmental Modification Convention since 1978, which bans "any technique for changing the composition or structure of the Earth's biota".
Veterans for Peace is an organization founded in 1985. Initially made up of US military veterans of World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, the War in Afghanistan and the Iraq War, and as well as peacetime veterans and non-veterans, it has since spread overseas and has an active offshoot in the United Kingdom. The group works to promote alternatives to war.
2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid, a synthetic auxin, is a chlorophenoxy acetic acid herbicide used to defoliate broad-leafed plants. It was developed in the late 1940s, synthesized by reaction of 2,4,5-Trichlorophenol and chloroacetic acid. It was widely used in the agricultural industry until being phased out, starting in the late 1970s due to toxicity concerns. Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the British in the Malayan Emergency and the U.S. in the Vietnam War, was equal parts 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. 2,4,5-T itself is toxic with a NOAEL of 3 mg/kg/day and a LOAEL of 10 mg/kg/day. Agent Pink contained 100% 2,4,5-T. Additionally, the manufacturing process for 2,4,5-T contaminates this chemical with trace amounts of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD). TCDD is a carcinogenic persistent organic pollutant with long-term effects on the environment. With proper temperature control during production of 2,4,5-T, TCDD levels can be held to about .005 ppm. Before the TCDD risk was well understood, early production facilities lacked proper temperature controls and individual batches tested later were found to have as much as 60 ppm of TCDD.
The Rainbow Herbicides are a group of tactical-use chemicals used by the United States military in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. Success with Project AGILE field tests in 1961 with herbicides in South Vietnam was inspired by the British use of herbicides and defoliants during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s, which led to the formal herbicidal program Trail Dust. Herbicidal warfare is the use of substances primarily designed to destroy the plant-based ecosystem of an agricultural food production and/or to destroy dense foliage which provides the enemy with natural tactical cover.
The Global Village Foundation (GVF) is a non-profit charitable organization which provides education and health care for children and rural villagers in Vietnam and some other countries of Asia. Established in 1999 by author and humanitarian Le Ly Hayslip, it is based in the United States.
Health in Vietnam encompasses general and specific concerns to the region, its history, and various socioeconomic status, such as dealing with malnutrition, effects of Agent Orange as well as psychological issues from the Vietnam War, tropical diseases, and other issues such as underdeveloped healthcare systems or inadequate ratio of healthcare or social workers to patients.
Nguyễn Thanh Tùng is a Vietnamese monochord music performer and composer. He is well-known not only for his moving monochord performances and compositions, but also for his inner strength and perseverance as a blind Agent Orange victim.
Fred A. Wilcox is a retired associate professor in the writing department at Ithaca College. He is the author of six books on issues including the Vietnam War, nuclear power, and the Plowshares Movement. Two of his books discuss the effects of Agent Orange, a defoliant used extensively during the war.
Tiana Alexandra-Silliphant is a Vietnamese-American actress and filmmaker. Her indie movie From Hollywood to Hanoi was the first American documentary feature film shot in Vietnam by a Vietnamese-American. Tiana's life's work, Why Viet Nam? is about her personal story as a child of war and a widow of peace.
Linh Nga, is an American-Vietnamese film director, film producer, actress, and screenwriter. Linh Nga's 2019 documentary "Inside this peace" won "Award Of Merit" at the Impact DOCS Awards, won "Best Feature Documentary" at the California Women's Film Festival, and nominated for "Best Feature Documentary" at the Action On Film International Film Festival. Her 2003 film Up and Down the Dust Way won "TV Best Series" at the Vietnamese International Film Festival. She is the founder of 9669 films.
Agent Orange Act of 1991 establishes provisions for the National Academy of Sciences to analyze and summarize scientific evidence regarding presumptive military service exposure to defoliants, dioxins, and herbicides, better known as Agent Orange, during the Vietnam War era. The United States Statute endorses an observation of human medical conditions directly related to non-Hodgkin lymphoma, soft-tissue sarcoma, chloracne, and consistent acneform diseases for military personnel who served in the overseas Vietnamese region. The Act of Congress ratifies a medical research compilation of voluntarily contributed blood and tissue samples provided by Vietnam-era veterans serving in Southeast Asia between 1961 and 1975.
Agent Orange is a herbicide, classified as a defoliant, that was used most notably by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War. Its primary purpose was strategic deforestation, destroying the forest cover and food resources necessary for the implementation and sustainability of the North Vietnamese style of guerilla warfare. The U.S. Agent Orange usage reached an apex during Operation Ranch Hand, in which the material was sprayed over 4.5 million acres of land in Vietnam from 1961 to 1971.
Waging Peace in Vietnam: U.S. Soldiers and Veterans Who Opposed the War is a non-fiction book edited by Ron Carver, David Cortright, and Barbara Doherty. It was published in September 2019 by New Village Press and is distributed by New York University Press. In March 2023 a Vietnamese language edition of the book was launched at the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
George Mizo was an American activist, veteran, and founder of the Vietnam Friendship Village in Hanoi, Vietnam. The institution serves individuals afflicted by conditions related to Agent Orange while also opening channels of cross-cultural dialogue.
Lighter than Orange-The Legacy of Dioxin in Vietnam is a documentary by the Berlin filmmaker Matthias Leupold about the long-term consequences of American warfare in Vietnam. The film was shot in Vietnam in 2012 and has been subtitled in English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Vietnamese and Russian. The film documents stories of Vietnamese veterans and their families who are affected by the gene damage caused by the defoliant Agent Orange. It contained 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzodioxin.
Tran To Nga is a Franco-Vietnamese environmental activist. During the Vietnam War, she was a journalist, then a liaison officer for the National Liberation Front. After the war, she became a school principal before running a travel agency.
