In South Vietnam, an estimated 10 million hectares of agricultural land was ultimately destroyed. In some areas, TCDD concentrations in soil and water were hundreds of times greater than the levels considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
To counter United Nations resolutions, it was argued that Agent Orange was not a chemical or a biological weapon since a weapon, by definition, is any device used to injure, defeat, or destroy living beings, structures, or systems, and Agent Orange did not qualify under that definition.
However, Agent Orange was later proven to cause serious health issues — including type 2 diabetes, immune system dysfunction, nerve disorders, muscular dysfunction, hormone disruption, heart disease, birth defects and severe psychological and neurological problems — among the Vietnamese people as well as among returning U.S. servicemen and their families.
In the aftermath of the use of Agent Orange in Vietnam, the Vietnamese government says that 400,000 were killed or maimed as a result of exposure and as many as 3 million have suffered illnesses. Military personnel who were involved in storage, mixture and transportation, and actual use of the chemicals also had severe health issues.
There have been numerous hearings, research projects, studies, conferences, reviews, evaluations, commissions, congressional acts, laws, lawsuits, rulings and appeals related to the effects of Agent Orange on Vietnamese citizens, US military personnel and the environment. None have been effective in addressing magnitude of the problem or insuring that similar problems do not recur.
7-. x 6 inches, 20pp with text over eco printed images of destroyed foliage. Bound with tattered fabric found 20 years ago in Vietnam
Dorothy Simpson Krause 2019
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