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Agent
Orange |
In1988 I was diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma cancer, which was a result of my exposure to Agent Orange. The Vietnam War left
many marks on our nation. The war was devastating to many American soldiers and their families. The defoliant Agent Orange was
sprayed during the Vietnam War. The aftermath would later on become one of the biggest cover-ups in American history, and create
a number of different illnesses among veterans and their families. Agent Orange should not have been used in Vietnam although its
purpose was to help American soldiers locate and defeat the enemy. The American Government dropped the ball in checking out its
health hazards and the long-term affects it would have on the country of South Vietnam, the Vietnamese people and the many
Americans who fought there.
What is Agent Orange?
Agent Orange is a herbicide produced by combining equal parts of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. This mixture produces an unwanted by-product
called TCDD (a Dioxin). It was used by the department of defense as a forest defoliant, to deny the enemy shelter, hiding, and ambush
cover and a method of destroying enigma food crops. The military took little or no precautions in the spraying because manuals
described it as being relatively non-toxic to man or animal. The application in Vietnam was by airplane, helicopter riverboat, and
some on foot with back pack spraying units. While the military was not taking any protective measures the same product with less
TCDD was sold in the United States by Dow Chemical with the warning: Caution may cause skin irritation. Avoid contact with eyes,
skin and clothing. Keep out of reach of children. Do not contaminate irrigation ditches or water used for domestic purposes. Since
the Vietnam War dioxins have been called one of the most dangerous chemicals known to man.
Effects of Agent Orange:
Concerns about the health affects of herbicides such as Agent Orange first surfaced back in 1970. Since that time the debate over
the health affects of herbicides has been clouded by scientific uncertainty, politics and a maelstrom of strong emotions. In 1983
Agent Orange was to undertake three separate studies, which in the end resulted in three false findings. Finally in 1990 the results of
the selected cancer study were out that Vietnam veterans were at a risk of contracting cancer due to their exposure to defoliant
Agent Orange. To date I can say that due to many studies that have been done in the last three years, Vietnam veterans, including
myself, along with the National Academy of Sciences have made great leaps and bounds in proving that Agent Orange exposure did
cause cancer and other problems among veterans. As of right now non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer, soft tissue sarcoma cancer
and a skin disease called Chloracne are considered service connected illnesses by the Veterans Administration. The Center for
Disease Control is continuing to do research on the effects of Agent Orange. They are finding that Agent Orange is directly
responsible for illness in veterans of the Vietnam era.
The Cover Up:
The Agent Orange cover up story can become an emotional thing for me to write about. In 1988 I was a victim of defoliant Agent
Orange. And after a series of tests, two tumors the size of softballs were removed from my abdomen which was diagnosed as a
rare form of cancer usually found in people in their sixties, along with a cyst that they extracted 5 and one half liters of fluid from.
There was actually no way of knowing how long the cancer was in my system. I consider myself lucky today for I have been clear
from cancer now for 6 years. The U.S. sprayed 11.2 million gallons of Agent Orange over the countryside during the Vietnam War.
Thousands of gallons of military defoliants were secretly shipped to South Vietnam in the early 1960s. The spraying in Vietnam was
started at the urging of South Vietnamese president NGO Dinh Diem. The U.S. had seriously considered having the spraying carried
out by air force officers in civilian disguise and flying mismarked aircraft because of potential public impact of the campaign. There
have been many incidents over the years and many problems that have arose from information that was shoved under the table
including veterans who have died from the effects of Agent Orange. The sad part is that the government should have been up front
with what they knew about Agent Orange and been willing to admit that yes, Agent Orange was dangerous. That we need to check
veterans over immediately to see if we can try to prevent them from becoming sick or contracting a disease, It’s now almost 25
years after the war has ended and only in the last 3 years has there been a real emphasis put on making this situation right. Dow
chemical company in the last few years has paid out approximately 180 million dollars to veterans after veterans won a lawsuit
which found Dow chemical irresponsible when it came to making it known how hazardous these chemicals were. One of the big
reasons that Agent Orange was taken serious by this country was because of the chief of naval operations, Elmo R Zumwalt, Jr. As
the navy’s top commander in Vietnam he ordered that Agent Orange be sprayed in the Mekong delta region to destroy vegetation. In
1988 Zumwalt’s son, Elmo the 3rd, a former lieutenant who had served in the brown water navy died from a rare form of lymphoma.
Zumwalt believes his son’s exposure to Agent Orange was responsible. Since that incident there have been new studies and
veterans are now being examined in VA hospitals around the country for their exposure to Agent Orange.
Conclusion
To bring this story to a conclusion I would like to say that Agent Orange in my opinion was originally used to help us soldiers in their
efforts to win a very unpopular war. Agent Orange destroyed the jungle cover where the enemy set up ambushes and also where
they constantly pounded U.S. ships from the shores of the Mekong delta. Without the jungle cover it was impossible for them to fire
rockets at the ships without the U.S. soldiers seeing where they were. But also it is my opinion that the U.S. dropped the ball because
they failed to check out the hazards of this chemical on the human body. It was a highly toxic dioxin that poisoned the systems of
many veterans and their families. How should I feel as a veteran? Should I be angry that my own country sprayed me with a toxic
chemical that almost killed me back in 1988? Are there families of veterans whose sons are dead now because this information
wasn’t released or looked into until almost 25 years later? We must continue on today and research defoliant Agent Orange and try
to make it right the best we know how. I can tell you that the Vietnam veteran paid dearly for many screw-ups and lost 55,000 lives. I
believe that many lives were saved during the Persian Gulf war because they didn’t make the same mistakes there that they did in
Vietnam. Gulf veterans who were exposed to the smoke and fires are already receiving physical check ups for respiratory problems
that they are having.
April 26, 1994
For More Information On Veterans Benefits Relating to Agent Orange
Click
Here.
The plane
below was one of the C-123s used in the war to spray AO. It can spray around 11,000
pounds over 300 acres in 4 minutes.
Huey
used for spot spraying dangerous chemicals
Before
and after picture of an area sprayed with Agent Orange
