In the midst of central Hanoi, Vietnam on November 23, 2017, a Vietnamese flag fluttered atop the State Bank building. The image was captured by Reuters.
During the war, U.S. forces resorted to defoliants, substances that cause plant leaves to fall off when applied. These defoliants were used to strip North Vietnamese forces of cover in forests across Vietnam. The most notorious defoliant used during the war was Agent Orange, a mixture of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D in equal parts. Over a million people in Vietnam developed severe health issues due to exposure to Agent Orange after the conflict ended.
Britain was the first country to use defoliants as a weapon of war during the Malayan Emergency. They created a substance similar to Agent Orange that also contained dioxin, which led to the Seveso disaster in 1976. Alongside Agent Orange, the U.S. concocted a blend of cacodylic acid, sodium cacodylate, and water to destroy rice paddies across Vietnam because they were challenging even with fire.
The use of defoliants against civilian populations has been prohibited since 1980; however, their effects on civilians during the Vietnam War were devastating. The substance burned easily and spread quickly before sticking to surfaces with its long-lasting consequences famously captured in Nick Ut’s photograph taken in 1972 known as “The Terror of War.”
At a United Nations conference held in June 1972 at Geneva, Switzerland Olof Palme described how these chemicals caused ecocide and called for it