The Legacy of War: The Tragic Consequences of Defoliants Used in Vietnam and Malayan Emergency

During the war, U.S. forces utilized defoliants to deprive North Vietnamese forces from using plants as cover. The most infamous example of a defoliant used during the war was called Agent Orange, a mixture of two compounds called 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D in a 1:1 ratio. After the war, more than a million people in Vietnam were estimated to have developed major illnesses due to exposure to Agent Orange.

The use of napalm has been banned against civilian populations since 1980, but its effects were seen during the Vietnam War. Its effects were the subject of a famous photo taken in 1972 by Nick Ut.

Alongside Agent Orange, the U.S. developed a mixture of cacodylic acid, sodium cacodylate, and water to destroy rice plants which were difficult to destroy even with fire. The mixture killed these plants by dehydrating them.

Britain was the first country to use defoliants as a weapon of war during the Malayan Emergency when they prepared a substance nearly identical to Agent Orange but containing dioxin which turned out to be responsible for the Seveso disaster in 1976. Olof Palme described the effects of defoliants in Vietnam as “ecocide” at a U.N conference in June 1972 and wanted it designated an international crime.