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The effects of agent orange in vietnam
Essays on agent orange during vietnam
The effects of agent orange in vietnam
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Health effects are prominent in Vietnam veterans but denied by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. As reported in the American Legion Magazine, “The defoliant also is believed to have poisoned many people who handled it or passed through sprayed locations. After the war, a conspicuous percentage of veterans contracted various cancers or diabetes, and birth defects occurred at high rate among their children, VA compensation and care were denied (Carroll).” Denial of these severe diseases and unnatural occurrences by the VA could be construed as a cover-up for the government’s mistake or a truthful disconnect of Agent Orange and the diseases. Research has shown, “Dioxin has been found to be a carcinogen associated with Parkinson’s disease, …show more content…
Many suffer from mental retardation (Ha).” Vietnam veterans were more likely to have low sperm count as a side effect of being exposed to the chemical (Dolan 59). In comparison, “They also pointed out that factors other than exposure to the herbicide showed themselves as possible causes of some of the problems. These factors included alcohol consumption and heavy smoking.- the researchers said that they could not find among the ranch handers a set of symptoms or a pattern of symptoms to suggest a solid connection between present-day health problems and exposure to Agent Orange in the past (Dolan 76).” Although the damages of Agent Orange were given little attention, a few investigations and minor court cases attempted to settle the devastation. In an effort to research, “Maude De Victor tried to determine if Operation Ranch Hand aircraft sprayed ground troops. She talked to chemical companies that manufactured Agent …show more content…
VA’s top brass ordered her to stop asking questions (Carroll).” The VA once again shut down the issue of Agent Orange, making them seem more guilty in the years following Operation Ranch Hand. Carroll gave a summarized Public Law 97-72 as, “authorizing priority health-care services in all VA medical centers for the treatment of health conditions in Vietnam veterans that may be related to Agent Orange exposure (Carroll).” Once the law was set in motion the VA realized they were in a losing position in the argument of who was at fault. Later on in the decade, “Congress appropriated $100 million for VA to conduct its own Agent Orange study.- Delegates at the 1981 American Legion National Convention called for an immediate independent study.- Rep. Thomas Daschle,D-S.D., introduced a bill to recognize a service-connection presumption for some of the illnesses veterans described.- Daschle’s bill died (Carroll).” As described by Dolan, “The agreement called for them to place $180 million in a trust fund that would then be distributed among all the veterans claiming harm by Agent Orange (Dolan 82).” However, the money was not able to reach all Veterans affected by the chemicals. Many veterans have to rely on other insurance carriers to cover the cost of check-ups, some have to pay out of
My research paper is on Dugway Proving Ground incident of 1969. The incident actually took place in March of 1968. What happened in 1969 was that President Nixon reaffirmed the “no first use, retaliate in kind” which became a national policy for the employment of chemical weapons. (Mauroni, Al, p. 33) The incident involved the killing of 6,000 sheep according to The Salt Lake Tribune. A deadly nerve agent known as VX had drifted off the reservation contaminating the sheep feeding area. The Army conducted investigations to show that they had nothing to do with the death of those sheep. At the end of the investigation it showed that they were not responsible for the incident. I am going to talk about the history of Dugway Proving Ground, and what cause the sheep to die. The people are blame the government for the death of the sheep, and the government is blaming ranchers. The government said the sheep died from the pesticides they sprayed to protect their crops.
This last process is significant not only because it brought dioxin the current notoriety but it also is a chemical process used to make products that were used and are still been used in many applications. These applications include pesticide, herbicide, defoliating agent such as Agent Orange, cleaning agent and electrical insulation. Consequently, human exposure to dioxin is not a recent phenomenon and the dangers of dioxin are not unknown. Only in recent years, especially after the Vietnam War, has the media concentrated on the dangers and impact of dioxin.
History has proven the use of chemical weapons ranging back for decades. From the Greeks in ancient Europe using Greek fire to South American tribes using a form of tear gas made of grounded up hot chili peppers to scare away enemy tribes. As well as dipping the tips of spear heads with a poisonous toxin. Poisonous toxins used from live reptiles like frogs and venom from the snakes found from whichever region had enough potency venom to exterminate. The past has proven, that in order for Armies to survive and win, it relied on out smarting the enemy. New technologies and the evolution of weaponry were left to the brightest minds from those eras to develop.
The authors of each supporting article help prove my claim of neglect by the Department of Veteran Affairs and public for the Vietnam veterans exposed to the herbicide, Agent Orange, as well as the herbicide causing the veterans physical and psychological distress. The credibility of the articles is supported not only by the authors’ credentials but also in the reoccurrence of facts in each article. For example, concerning the disregard by the Department of Veteran Affairs of stated illness by Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange, the authors of “Agent Orange Exposure and Attributes Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans” argue “the DVA assumption is inconsistent with the scientific principles governing determinations of disease causation” (Cecil and Young, 2011). Supporting this claim, the authors of “The Use of Epidemiological Evidence on the Compensation of Veterans” argue regarding the process of Veteran Affairs connecting illnesses to Agent Orange “the current process for making presumptions is regarded by some key stakeholders, particularly the veterans service organizations and the veterans themselves, as flawed; its
Rachel Carson establishes ethos to begin constructing her argument against poisonings. In lines 8-12, she cites the Fish and Wildlife Service to demonstrate that her concerns extend to credible organizations and are not unfounded. She documents an example where farmers in southern Indiana “went together in the summer of 1959 to engage a spray plane to treat an area of river bottomland with parathion” (lines 12-16). To further establish her ethos and authority to speak on this topic, she also supplements this example by explaining a healthy, eco-friendly alternative to how the farmers could have responded. In lines 17-22, she states that agricultural practice revisions would have sufficed for a solution, making the poisonings unnecessary. By offering a solution, Carson not only
...of the struggle over how the war would be remembered. Blanketed by the discourse of disability, the struggle over the memory of veterans and the country alike would be waged with such obliquity as to surpass even the most veiled operations of Nixon’s minions. While Nixon’s plumbers were wrenching together the Gainesville case against VVAW in the spring of 1972, mental health and news-media professionals were cobbling together the figure of the mentally incapacitated Vietnam veteran. More than any other, this image is the one that would stick in the minds of the American people. The psychologically damaged veteran raised a question that demanded an answer: what happened to our boys that was so traumatic that they were never the same again? As it came to be told, the story of what happened to them had less to do with the war itself than with the war against the war.
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 mission, known as Operation Ranch Hand, involved spraying 20 million gallons of Agent Orange over roughly 3.6 million acres of Vietnamese land to remove forest cover, destroy crops, and clear vegetation from U.S. army bases (Vietnam War Herbicides).
Schecter, Arnold, et al. "Recent Dioxin Contamination From Agent Orange in Residents of a Southern Vietnam City." FFRD. N.p., May 2011. . Rpt. in JOEM. Vol. 43. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. 5. FFRD. Web. 3 Apr. 2011.
It has been known that the Vietnam War affected many American soldiers who were involved in the war physically and psychologically. The Vietnam War was one of the most memorable wars in history. Many Americans’ lives lost for no objective at all. Chapter 10 informed us about how the Vietnam War started and what really happened during that time. It also gave us background information about Vietnam Veterans and nurses who were involved in the war and what they went through during the war. I had the opportunity to interview a Vietnam Veteran also.
On February 8th, 1968, shots were fired on a crowd of civil rights protesters and that day became known as one of the saddest days in South Carolina history. Many problems occurred in South Carolina, mostly between blacks and whites over issues about civil rights and segregation. These issues in South Carolina lasted many years and led to many events, protests, and even massacres that all resulted in sometimes very horrible outcomes but also bringing South Carolina one step further to getting rid of segregation. One horrible event that took place in the late 60’s was the Orangeburg Massacre that resulted in a few deaths and some injuries but also furthered integration in Orangeburg. In 1968, due to the conflict between civil rights protestors
Contamination from the depleted uranium weaponries and other pollution caused by war is alleged for the rise in congenital birth defects, cancer, and other illnesses (Jamail, 2013).
Since the end of the Persian Gulf War, the United States along with the United Nations has struggled with Saddam Hussein to locate his “weapons of mass destruction”. Saddam’s persistence and dubious manner towards the United States military has raised concern for military protection. To combat biological threats, Secretary of Defense William Cohen implemented a mandatory military wide vaccination of all military members. Since the inception of the program, the program has been the subject of criticism by military members, Veteran Associations, Doctors, and many Senators on Capital Hill. The criticisms have stirred questions regarding the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine. Questions that the military has not given clear answers to. Until the many questions regarding the vaccine are answered, service members should not be forced to undergo the vaccination program against anthrax.
The Vietnam and other wars have mentally and sometimes physically dismembered many veterans. Another factor that plays a role in a war-related suicide is the addition of many on-site diseases such as defoliants, Agent Orange in particular. Made up of equal parts N-Butyl Ester 2,4,-D and N-Butyl Ester 2,4,5,-T, Agent Orange made many Vietnam soldiers go insane (Vietnam Veterans, 11-10-2000). This atrocious chemical lead and still today leads to death, deformation, and diabetes. Dr. Joel E. Michalek, who deals with statistics for the air force, was the first to notice a link between Agent Orange and diabetes. But the federal government was not willing “...to spend millions of dollars on such studies”. Dr. Michael Gough, a retired biologist was quoted as saying “the conclusion I’ve come to is that there is no evidence whatsoever to support any connection between low-level dioxin exposure and any human disease”. Some say they will not do research because it is another thing “...that will be linked to the health complaints of Vietnam veterans” (Kolata, A16). There is hope still. In 1996, Clinton ordered disability benefits for Vietnam veterans suffering from prostate cancer and nerve disease associated with Agent Orange. Eventually, the government will fund more and more diseases for those who served in the war and were exposed to the substances.
Johnson, it was time to change the way we were distributing our forces to help aid the Southern Vietnamese military forces (History.com, 2010). The use of aircrafts first started out to transport wounded off the battlefield, but quickly turned into the use of different chemicals such as agent orange, to destroy brush for troops to travel through easier. Operation Rolling Thunder started out as just a discussion among those of higher ranking command, but on March 1965 the talk became action (Pike, 2016).