Agent Orange was a chemical warfare herbicide intended to destroy Vietnam's dense forest coverage and food supply but resulted in deadly toxins, disease and death for U.S. soldiers and Vietnamese citizens alike.

The Daily Dose provides microlearning history documentaries like this one delivered to your inbox daily: [ Ссылка ]

We strive for accuracy and unbiased fairness, but if you spot something that doesn’t look right please submit a correction suggestion here: [ Ссылка ]

Learn more: [ Ссылка ]
Subscribe for daily emails: [ Ссылка ]
Become a Patron: [ Ссылка ]

Follow us on social media:
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Click to subscribe on YouTube: [ Ссылка ]

#documentary #history #biography

Today's Daily Dose short military history film covers Agent Orange, which has caused immediate and long-term health ailments for Vietnam veterans and Vietnamese civilians alike. The filmmaker has included the original voice over script to further assist your understanding:

Today on The Daily Dose, Agent Orange.

In a region steeped in jungleous terrain, from 1961 to 1971, the U.S. military implemented an aggressive chemical warfare campaign known as Operation Ranch Hand, dispersing some 20 million gallons of herbicides across more than 4.5 million acres of Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, intended to destroy forest cover and food crops that concealed and fed enemy combatants. “Only you can prevent a forest,” soldiers joked as a twist on the Smokey the Bear fire-fighting campaign back home, as they sprayed herbicides like Agent Orange from planes, trucks and hand sprayers, all without protective measures for the soldiers involved.

While Agent Orange proved highly effective in causing jungle plants to lose their leaves and die, the agent also delivered deadly amounts of a dioxin known as TCDD, introducing immediate and long-term consequences as the compound leached into soil and river sediments, at the same time accumulating in the fatty tissues of fish, birds and other animals consumed by humans. The results proved devastating to American troops and locals alike, causing liver problems, a severe acne-like skin disease known as chloracne, muscular dysfunction, hormone disruptions, spina bifida and other birth defects in newborns, heart disease, type 2 diabetes, immune suppression leading to a wide range of cancers, nervous disorders and miscarriages.

Over the years following the end of the Vietnam War, a number of class action lawsuits have been filed on behalf of veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange during their service in Vietnam, while in 1991, President George H.W. Bush signed the Agent Orange Act, which helped the VA healthcare system classify the treatment of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, soft tissue sarcomas and chloracne to be treated and paid for as a direct result of military service during the war years in Southeast Asia. As for the nation of Vietnam, health officials report more than 400,000 deaths caused by exposure to Agent Orange, while some two million people have suffered from the same deadly ailments reported by Vietnam veterans. To further the tragedy, nearly half a million Vietnamese children have been born with serious birth defects attributed to Operation Ranch Hand, making Agent Orange, yet another deadly outcome of the Vietnam War.

And there you have it, Agent Orange, today on The Daily Dose.

свернуть