From 1961 to 1971, the U.S. used the herbicide and defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam, leaving behind millions of victims with deadly diseases and birth defects.
For ten years in Vietnam, it rained a chemical mist. It was the height of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, and planes and helicopters flew above the country’s fields, spraying a toxic chemical called Agent Orange.
A potent herbicide mixture deployed by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, Agent Orange devastated both the country’s landscape and the health of those exposed. More than 3 million people became victims of Agent Orange in the aftermath of its use between 1961 and 1971 — and many of them suffered unimaginable torment.
Three planes fly over Vietnam releasing chemicals.Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971.
Wikimedia Commons Le Van O., a 14-year-old boy who was born without eyes because of the effects of Agent Orange.Hanoi, Vietnam. March 28, 2006.
HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images An aerial photograph showing the effects of Agent Orange. The land on the left hasn't been sprayed while the land on the right has.Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971.
Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. Collection: Agent Orange Subject Files/The Vietnam Center and Archive/Texas Tech University Not all of the chemicals were sprayed from above. These soldiers are spraying crops from atop a vehicle, getting up close and personal with the dangerous chemicals.Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971.
Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. Collection: Agent Orange Subject Files/The Vietnam Center and Archive/Texas Tech University A ten-year-old girl born without arms writes in her schoolbook.Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam. December 2004.
Wikimedia Commons A five-year-old boy, born blind and mute because of Agent Orange poisoning, sits at the barred window of an orphanage.Hue, Vietnam. March 9, 2011.
Paula Bronstein /Getty Images Soldiers down below help spray Agent Orange on the jungle, getting a dangerous dose of the chemicals all over their skins in the process.Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971.
Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. Collection: Agent Orange Subject Files/The Vietnam Center and Archive/Texas Tech University 55-year-old Kan Lay holds her 14-year-old son, born with severe physical disabilities because of Agent Orange.A Lưới, Vietnam. August 6, 2013.
Wikimedia Commons Tran Thi Nghien bathes her handicapped daughter, an Agent Orange victim who is incapable of bathing herself. Cam Lo, Vietnam. March 8, 2011.Paula Bronstein/Getty Images Hoang Duc Mui, a Vietnamese veteran, speaks to American veterans during a visit to Friendship Village, Hanoi's shelter for Agent Orange victims.Hanoi, Vietnam. September 25, 2003.
HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images A soldier, after spraying the land with Agent Orange, tries to wash himself clean in some of the very waters that he had helped pollute.Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971.
Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. Collection: Agent Orange Subject Files/The Vietnam Center and Archive/Texas Tech University An American veteran shows the long rashes across his arms that he developed from working with Agent Orange. Under his clothes, the rashes cover half of his body.Brooklyn, New York. May 7, 1984.
Bettmann/Getty Images A helicopter sprays Agent Orange.Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971.
Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. Collection: Agent Orange Subject Files/The Vietnam Center and Archive/Texas Tech University Lt. Kathleen Glover comforts an orphaned Vietnamese child.After the war, Lt. Glover would come home and find out that she had contracted Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma from her exposure to Agent Orange.
Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971.
RADM Frances Shea Buckley Collection/The Vietnam Center and Archive/Texas Tech University A man begs for money outside of a cathedral. He was born with a deformed arm because of Agent Orange, and it makes it nearly impossible for him to find work.Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. June 1, 2009.
Wikimedia Commons A group of American planes fly over top of the jungles and release chemicals meant to kill the trees underneathVietnam. Circa 1961-1971.
Wikimedia Commons A child born without eyes lies in bed at an orphanage that takes care of 125 children, all born with disabilities because of Agent Orange.Ba Vi, Vietnam. March 15, 2011.
Paula Bronstein /Getty Images A helicopter sprays Agent Orange on Vietnamese farmland.Mekong River, Vietnam. July 26, 1969.
Wikimedia Commons Nguyen Xuan Minh, a four-year child born with severe deformities because of Agent Orange, which Monsanto helped manufacture.Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. May 2, 2005.
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images A massive stack of 55-gallon drums full of Agent Orange waits to be poured over the people of Vietnam.Location unspecified. Circa 1961-1971.
Wikimedia Commons Nguyen The Hong Van, a 13-year-old girl who was born with skin disorders and a mental handicap. She grew up near a site where the army stored Agent Orange.Danang, Vietnam. March 6, 2011.
Paula Bronstein/Getty Images Military personnel demonstrate how to handle an Agent Orange leak, apparently growing increasingly aware of how dangerous the chemical they'd been using really is.Okinawa, Japan. May 11, 1971.
Wikimedia Commons Professor Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong poses for a photo with the handicapped children under her care. Every one of them was born with a defect caused by Agent Orange.Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. December 2004.
Wikimedia Commons The third-generation child of an Agent Orange victim. Despite the generations between him and the Vietnam War, this boy still feels the effects and lives in a special village for Agent Orange victims.Hanoi, Vietnam. November 10, 2007.
A. Strakey/Flickr
Why The Victims Of Agent Orange Are Still Suffering To This Day View GalleryWhy The U.S. Military Used Agent Orange During The Vietnam War
The plan was to wipe out the enemy's food supply. Agent Orange was an incredibly potent herbicide made even stronger in the hands of the U.S. and South Vietnamese Air Forces, who mixed it to 13 times its usual strength. It could obliterate whole farms and wipe out entire forests with nothing more than a gentle mist. Their plan was to leave the Viet Cong exposed and hungry — but they couldn't have imagined the full impact that this plan would ultimately have.
The plan worked, in a sense. From 1961 to 1971, 5 million acres of forests and millions more of farmland were destroyed by Agent Orange. These were farms that the U.S. and South Vietnamese thought were being used to feed the Viet Cong's guerrilla army – but in reality, most were feeding civilians. People across the country starved.
The real impact of Agent Orange, though, took years to come out: 4 million people had been exposed to a chemical that could wipe out any form of plant life it touched. Despite what the chemical's producers had promised, it wasn't harmless.
The Horrors Suffered By The Victims Of Agent Orange
HOANG DINH NAM/AFP via Getty ImagesAgent Orange victims Van Long (right) and Nguyen Thi Bich Phuong attend an international conference on the effects of this toxic defoliant in Hanoi on March 28, 2006.
Agent Orange caused health problems in the people who'd breathed it in, and even worse ones in their children. Babies across Vietnam started being born with horrible mutations – some with physical and mental defects, others with extra fingers and limbs, and some without eyes.
A whole generation of Agent Orange victims was born plagued with mental and physical problems that made it impossible for them to have normal lives. Today, many of these Agent Orange victims live in Peace Villages, where workers care for them and try to give them a normal life – but the mutations caused by Agent Orange still affect the people and the children of Vietnam, even today.
The ones who can live in a Peace Village are luckier than some of their siblings. Some Agent Orange victims are born too horribly deformed to even survive childbirth. "There is a room at the hospital which contains the preserved bodies of about 150 hideously deformed babies, born dead to their mothers," one charity worker has said. "Some have two heads; some have unbelievably deformed bodies and twisted limbs. They are kept as a record of the terrible consequences of chemical weaponry."
The American soldiers who sprayed the fields were promised that the chemicals would only be hurting plants, not people — but these soldiers didn't come home any better off than those they sprayed. Vietnam Vets came home reporting unusual rates of lymphoma, leukemia, and cancer — especially those who had worked with Agent Orange.
The Vietnam War has been over for more than 40 years, but because of Agent Orange, it's still tearing people apart.
After this look at Agent Orange victims, find out the stories behind the Vietnam War's iconic Napalm Girl photograph and Saigon execution photograph. Then, read up on some of the worst war crimes in history.
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