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Essay on vietnam agent orange
The effects of agent orange in vietnam
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The Vietnam war had many impact on its environment for one was during agent orange were a mix of two herbicides that was dispersed by the air force known as Operation Ranch Hand It killed off vegetation that had provided the enemy with cover, and their food crops. The chemical was very dangerous to people who came into contact with it and its use was stopped in 1971, but the damage was already great after almost a decade of use. Another one was used in deforestation and it was known as a napalm, it would be sprayed onto vegetation and it would be ignited. Napalm also quickly destroyed all surrounding vegetation. Napalm was responsible for the destruction of much of the landscape. Chemical defoliation damage the ecosystem in unimaginable ways, but our government considered it necessary to defeat the enemy. …show more content…
The machines are estimated to have cleared approximately 1,000 acres of land daily at a rate of about one acre of land per hour, and every day they operated a fleet of 150 tractors. Not only did the Rome Plows kill massive numbers of animals and tons of vegetation, they also caused erosion, a problem that is still a concern of ecologists today. If you negatively impact one area, the results will spread. All the forms of deforestation were just the beginning of Vietnam's damaged ecology, because they were tactics to set up weaponry, which also was extremely harmful to the ecology of Vietnam. Many effects of the Vietnam War on the environment have proved irreversible. Many species of animals and vegetation were greatly reduced and, in some cases, became
The Vietnam War was, mentally and physically, one of the most brutal the United States has ever participated in. Our soldiers had to undergo daily miseries and sufferings which wore on them in body and mind. Dysentery was a common cause of physical wasting. Other diseases combined with the continuous rain and mud caused flesh to rot and made daily life that much more insufferable. Long periods of boredom would be broken by unexpected guerilla attacks or booby traps. The enemy rarely materialized long enough to be actively fought or even identified. Equally uncertain as who they were fighting was the answer to the question of what purpose they were fighting and dying for.
It was a very bloody war, with more than 58,000 American soldiers having perished in combat. Also, during the decade of direct U.S Military participation in Vietnam, during early times of the year, 1964 the U.S treasury spent over 140 billion dollars on this war. “This was enough money to fund urban projects in every major American city” (history.com). As this war affected the American’s, it affected the Vietnamese people too. This war affected both the American’s and the Vietnamese, because in the year 1973 the United States began withdrawing troops.
On April 12, 1961, the first application of the chemical nicknamed Agent Orange was sprayed on Vietnamese foliage in an attempt to stop guerilla warfare, launching a herbicidal disaster ("Herbicidal Warfare"). The consequences of agent orange, unbeknownst to the former government officials, led to a series of catastrophic effects including, but not limited to neurobehavioral and physical anomalies of the human body. As a result of the lacking knowledge of Agent Orange, the United States and Vietnam are still cleaning up the herbicidal mess that could have been avoided (Magnuson). Decades later, scientific evidence proved that the use of the dioxin herbicide Agent Orange was linked to many physical and neurobehavior disorders (Poremba).
The Vietnam War was known for the thousands of lived that were lost and the billions of dollars in debt that destroyed the US economy. To this day, it is debatable as to whether or not US involvement in the war was worth the devastation it caused to the country.
Warwick, Hugh. “Agent Orange: The Poisoning of Vietnam.” The Ecologist v28 no. 5. 1998: 264-265.
Men zoom by on a sled. Cheerful music plays in the background, and a voice chimes, “You want fast action?” A man floats along on water skis. “Outdoors action?” the voice calls. A man climbs up a tall, dangerous mountain. “Real man-sized action?” the voice proclaims. “Well, here’s action that tops them all, in the combat branches of today’s Army,” the voice finishes (Quitney). It was not uncommon to see the Army or military glamorized in Vietnam recruitment commercials, much like the one described previously. Despite the decorated ideals of the military life and duties, the Vietnam War would prove to be far from idealistic for U.S. soldiers. Many of the soldiers who were drafted into the war did not have a choice in the matter and did not want to go. During training camp, the privates were often mistreated and suffered physical and mental punishments. American soldiers committed war crimes repeatedly without any second thought. Because of the brutality that occurred during the Vietnam War, many soldiers suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which frequently led to suicide and depression. The goal was to win the war, but those who were forced to kill without conscience cannot close their mind to the anguish they placed upon themselves and so many people.
The military forces sprayed over 19 million gallons of herbicides and it was over 4.5 billion acres of land in Vietnam. The Agent Orange was the chemical dioxin that was most commonly used and was the most effective herbicide. This chemical was used “to remove unwanted plant life and leaves which otherwise provided cover for enemy forces
It is understandable that some Americans strongly opposed the United States getting involved in the Vietnam War. It had not been a long time since the end of World War II and simply put, most Americans were tired of fighting. Mark Atwood Lawrence is one of the people who opposed our involvement in the Vietnam War. In his essay, “Vietnam: A Mistake of Western Alliance”, Lawrence argues that the Vietnam War was unnecessary and that it went against our democratic policies, but that there were a lot of things that influenced our involvement.
After the Vietnam War, soldiers suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder in countless numbers. The trauma they saw, endured, and witnessed forever changed and scared their lives. Men, like Tim O'Brien the author of the novel The Things They Carried, suffered from posttraumatic stress disorder and it took them years to regain their lives after their return home. In the excerpt from his novel, O'Brien shows the reader how the men endured this mind-altering experience in the jungles of Vietnam through the details of all the items the men carry.
The Vietnam War has had its effects on America, both good and bad. We can ridicule it, we can deny it, we can say it was for the best, we can say we shouldn't have even gotten involved, but the one thing we can't do is ignore it. Because it's become an unforgettable part of history, and we all need to remember Vietnam.
During the Vietnam War in 1965 the US began sending troops and platoons to fight the war. However, since war expenses overly affected the economy in the US the businesses began to become affected. American businesses were concerned about the cost of the war in Vietnam since they perceived the conflict to be of high costs. They were worried that this would eventually hurt the domestic economy and cause inflation among the country. Businesses had to adjust to the increased inflation and therefore they had to offer higher wages to their employees and increased prices of their products. The amount the US government was spending on war and tax increases hurt American businesses. At the end of the war the US suffered from economic
...elicopters, land mines, booby traps, and poison gases. Each weapon had a different use they could be used to kill people or to cause devastation to the land and the plant life in the area. The weapons of the Vietnam War had some off the most devastating weapons ever used in warfare and because of the devastation those weapon were never used again.
The most obvious impact on Vietnam was the literal ravaging of the land. The bombing campaigns and ground endeavors helped to destroy so much of the terrain and the land upon which a primarily agricultural society depended. The "Rice Bowl" of the world was significantly altered with the constant presence of conventional and unconventional warfare. The spillover in the later stages of the war to Cambodia had much of the same effect. The Cambodian inclusion in the war revealed much of the brutality and cruelty in the war, as the United States began bombing campaigns in the neighboring nation. Political instability ensued with totalitarian leadership assuming control in Cambodia once the Americans and other Westerners were expelled from Cambodia
The Vietnam War was the first major war American’s had suffered defeat. The Vietnam war was a war of confusion, competition and biasness. The outcome of the war was far greater than an upset American nation, but a severe breakdown of the Vietnamese culture, economy, environment and government. It also had a tremendous impact on American society even up to present day. It was unclear from the beginning of the war if the American’s should even be involved. It was a war between Northern and Southern Vietnam but the U.S saw it as an indirect way to challenge the USSR’s sphere of influence in Southern Asia and to prevent the domino effect and the further spread of communism. The Vietnam War completely changed the way the United States approached military action and helped establish the role of the United States within the new world order.
According to World WildLife Fund, many ecosystems around the world are being destroyed, eliminating many plant and animal species that inhabit them (“Pollution”). 2. And acid rain, which is created when water in the atmosphere mixes with chemicals, ravage through rain forests and can even kill fish. 3.