Agent orange is the outcome of the napalm used in the vietnam war. At first, the napalm was used to strip off the leaves of the trees, so the native soldiers had nowhere to hide. The government then decided that it was a better use for chemical warfare, and soldiers sprayed this napalm containing herbicides on crops and living areas. This chemical causes Agent orange, which is very toxic to humans and causes fatal and life altering birth defects. The worst part of this chemical warefare, is that even after the war is over, the vietnamese people are still afflicted with this horrible disease.This disease also affected the US army as well, many recieved severe burns from the napalm. Also because the US soldiers were near the farms and areas that were burned, they inhaled the toxic fumes and had serious illnesses and diseases. The veterans sued the defoliant manufacturers and this was settled out of court in 1984 by the payment of $180 million.
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VNchemical.htm
http://bhopal.net/petition/application/views/vietnam_more.html
Nate, it also affects so many verterans who served there and then had problems later on. Can you add a little bit about that situation as I believe some of the soldiers sued the US government to get health care. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThe photos by the way are heartbreaking.
why did they do that, OMG its hard to believe such people would do this to children and a society this is just evil.
ReplyDeleteIt's very sad to see something like this. However, if they were smart people they would not do this to their own people.
ReplyDeleteI think this was a bad idea to use those powerful chemicals in a war, I mean the the government probably didn't know that this will happen after the war...
ReplyDeleteAgent Orange was one of those weapons used that worked well when they used it but I don't think that they realized how long in the future it would cause problems. Good thing it is now a war crime to use it.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Abdi, they shouldn't have used those chemicals without knowing the effects of it.
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