"From 1962 to 1971, American C-123 transport planes sprayed roughly 20 million gallons of herbicides on an area of South Vietnam about the size of Massachusetts" (Budanovic). In just a short sentence, a massive war can be summarized, and the horrific actions that soldiers in the Vietnam war participated in can be exposed. C-123 aircrafts did not only deploy herbicides, but also deployed massive bombs on Vietnamese opponents in which many contained napalm. Created by the US Chemical Warfare Service, US soldiers mixed different chemicals, like rubber, with loads of gasoline to create a highly flammable, jelly like substance called napalm ("Freedman"). Napalm was used by the US in it's enemy of North Vietnam and Viet Cong, which was a political …show more content…
Some crazy number of people were affected by this highly flammable weapon. Napalm was created in 1942 in a science lab at Harvard University, by a group of scientists led by Louis Fiedler, a chemist ("Budanovic"). Napalm didn't only kill enemy soldiers but also many innocent civilians. Many innocent people who weren't participating in the war lost loved ones, homes and even their own lives sometimes. Napalm was key for the US when strategizing attacks in enemies. In the Vietnam war napalm was introduced first by the French however the US got a hold of it soon after the French on their communist enemies ("Tirman"). The US soldiers used it very extensively and caused unbelievably large amounts of damage because it was almost impossible to contain. As time passed it's ingredients became easier to get a hold of and napalm itself was increasingly accessible. Napalm was known for all the damage it caused in the Vietnam …show more content…
Agent Orange was the most well known chemical in Vietnam. It was named after its color when sprayed and combined two herbicides. The two herbicides were dichlorophenoxyacetic acid and trichlorophenoxyacetic acid, which contained remnants of dioxin ("Freedman"). One of these herbicides was actually found to be contaminated with a small amount of dioxin which is indeed highly toxic. "More than 19 million gallons of various “rainbow” herbicide combinations were sprayed, but Agent Orange was the combination the U.S. military used most often. The name “Agent Orange” came from the orange identifying stripe used on the 55-gallon drums in which it was stored" (Haberman). Vietnamese say that Agent Orange has also caused certain illnesses, although Americans have slowly avoided the idea of how Agent Orange has caused diseases and harmful human effects. The Agent Orange Act of 1991 proved that Agent Orange caused and led to some diseases like non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma and chloracne ("Haberman"). Veterans with these diseases or illnesses are able to receive treatment and compensation of money not even needing to prove that the individual has been exposed to Agent Orange. Although the use of Agent Orange on humans was dangerous, it was a key ingredient in the success of helping eliminate enemies
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. The physical effect of exposure to dioxin was first seen in skin diseases developed by chemical plant workers in 1895. Exposure to dioxin results in a type of skin disease like acne called "chloroacne," since its cause was initially and incorrectly linked to chlorine gas.
Looking back at how the chemical weaponry expanded starting in the beginning of World War 1, it all began with Tear gas which was used by the French in August of 1914. Those techniques have been used in ancient times. Moving forward eight months in to the war the Germans have been giving great study in to the development of chemical weapons due to the first usage from the French and witnessed its great effectiveness and were the first to use it in a large scale.
...h Americans used planes and helicopters to deploy sustained heavy bombardment over Vietnam. During this one operation there were more bombs dropped than in the entire WW2 – 864,000 tonnes in total.
The Vietnam War (1965-1975)was fought between the North and South Vietnam. The North was called Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the South was the Republic of Vietnam which was supported by the United States. On August 2nd, 1964 the USS Maddox was on a secret intelligent mission on the North Vietnamese coast where in the Gulf on Tonkin they were attacked by torpedo boats. The USS Turner Joy was attacked in the same area two days later. Due to the second attack Congress declared the Gulf of Tonkin resolution which led to air strikes.In 1959 there were 5,000 guerilla fighters and in 1964 the numbers jumped to 100,000. At Pleiku on March, 1965 U.S Marine barracks were attacked causing the three stage escalation bombing of North Vietnam to begin. The 3 year lasting bombing was used to force North Vietnam to stop supporting the "National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam" by destroying their industrial infrastructure and Vietnam's air defenses. Unfortunately this did not stop the North's support for the NLF. The U.S. Air Force bases were constantly being attacked so the U.S. on March 8, 1965 the 3,500 U.S. Marines was deployed to South Vietnam. At this point in time, the U.S. public supported the dispatch because the Vietnam War had been portrayed to the American people as a war against the spread of Communism. Johnson was president at the time and he kept adding more and more troops as the war went on. As the draft quotas increased, the American public protests started. When Nixon came into presidency his policy towards the Vietnam War was "peace with honor" in other words he wanted to widen the war. After more bombing and fighting, on January 27, 1973 the Paris Peace Accords was signed, restoring peace in Vietnam and U.S. forces pulled out. Nixon stopped all American attacks on Vietnam. The condensed summary of the Vietnam War is to see what presidents were involved in this war (Johnson, and Nixon) and what foreign policies were taken towards Vietnam mostly before the protests began.
"Veterans and Agent Orange: Health Effects of Herbicides Used in Vietnam." Veterans and Agent Orange: Health Effects of Herbicides Used in Vietnam. N.p., 1994. Web. 3 Apr. 2011. .
The Vietnam War was the longest war in America's history of involvement. Twenty years of hell, land mines, cross-fire, and death. Vietnam was divided by the Geneva Accord. The north being communist run by Ho Chi Minh. The south being anti-Communist run by Ngo Dinh Diem. Before Vietnam was separated, it was run by France. France had ruled most of Indochina since the late 1800s. The Vietnamese were unhappy with the way the French were controlling, therefore, many of them took refuge in China. When in China, they began to follow the lead of Ho Chi Minh, who wanted to model the Vietnamese Declaration of Independence as that of the U.S. version. In the 1940s, Japan had taken over Vietnam which upset Ho Chi Minh and his revolutionaries when they had returned a year later.
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.
In May 1961, John F. Kennedy sent investigators to Vietnam, thus turning the tide in favor of the United States and South Vietnam. Unfortunately, with the flow of infiltrators and weapons from North Vietnam, the United States and South Vietnam lost their upper hand (Tucker). Conclusively, 2.5 million Americans served and about 58,000 lost their lives in Vietnam (Vietnam Veterans Memorial). On April 30, 1975 Vietnam was finally reunited under a communist government. Once the war ended, Vietnam was devastated. Both the South and North Vietnamese economies were in shambles and they suffered from the chemical pesticides. The Vietnamese also lost about 3 million soldiers and civilians during the war. The United States also suffered due to the fact that the military was completely shattered and had to be rebuilt. The inflation was at an ultimate high from the failure to fact the actual costs of war. These situations forced Washington D.C. to reevaluate the power of the United States
The French were the first to start experimenting on chemical agents in 1912. They first used it on their people as riot control to capture criminals that who had robbed a bank. They used 26 millimeter grenades filled with chemical agents into the center of the group criminals they were attempting to apprehend. It was not said if it was effective but continued to look into using it for other means. However, the Germans at this time had not been interested in producing any kinds of chemical weapons.
She talked to chemical companies that manufactured Agent Orange. 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
In September 1917, the Germans introduced the mustard gas or Yperite which was contained in artillery shells against the Russians at Riga. Those exposed to mustard gas experienced painful blisters internally and externally and blindness.... ... middle of paper ... ... Technology in World War I laid a foundation for even more powerful and deadly weapons, such as the nuclear bomb.
The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam. Sadly, this is not what happened. The Viet Cong (VC) had far better tactics than the US. The VC was told to 'nibble at the enemy' so that he could 'neither eat or sleep'. This worked very well. Another demoralizing tactic the VC used was their landmines; they were designed to blow the limbs off the soldiers without killing them. This tied up hospital beds and meant the soldiers had to carry the wounded back to the base.
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”.
Introduction The development and usage of the first atomic bombs has caused a change in the military, political, and public functionality of the world today. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki revolutionized warfare by killing large masses of civilian population with a single strike. The bombs’ effects from the blast, extreme heat, and radiation left an estimated 140,000 people dead. The bombs created a temporary resolution that led to another conflict.
“Photographs like the one that made the front page of the most newspapers in the world in 1972- a naked South Vietnamese child just sprayed by american napalm, running down a highway toward the cameras, her arms open, screaming with pain-- probably did more to increase the public revulsion against the war than a hundred hours of televised barbarities”(476)