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How Did Agent Orange Affect Vietnam

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Agent Orange was of many herbicides stored and used in Vietnam. This arsenal of “Rainbow Herbicides” included Agents White, Green, Blue, Purple, and Pink, of which Orange was most lethal. But, Agent Orange’s lethal qualities only remained active from a few days to a week before degrading and becoming non-toxic. But if this was the case, then why was Vietnam affected for decades after the war? The component of Agent Orange that made it toxic, if even for a short amount of time, was dioxin. The most toxic of the dioxins, TCDD, was used in Agent Orange. But unlike Agent Orange, dioxin could last a lot longer in soil, water, and humans; in fact, TCDD could last up to a hundred years in water. But, Agent Orange wasn’t meant to have these capabilities. TCDD was an unintended byproduct of the herbicides and brought disease to …show more content…
And from 1961 to 1972, the United States spread 19 million gallons of herbicides across Vietnam for a program called Operation Ranch Hand. The US military deployed herbicide-carrying aircrafts all over Vietnam, covering 4.5 million acres of land. Agent Orange and the other members of the Rainbow Herbicides were showered over forests to remove natural cover from the opposing sides resources.
For years afterwards, Vietnam struggled with the lasting effects Agent Orange. An American Veteran, Bob Kerr said, “...we'd realize what a beautiful place it was. I'd sit up on a mountain at night and look out, and it's a stunning country, and I'd think, why is this happening?” The defoliation program had destroyed their lush forests, scarred their rolling hills, and poisoned their waters. The herbicides had been laced into every natural aspect of their lives. But the dioxin leached into more than their land, it leached into their legacy. The herbicides infected the people of Vietnam, and for generations they had to relive the war in the form of birth defects and diseases. One of the many diseases caused by Agent Orange was cancer. From both

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