Syllabus:

GS1: History of the world will include events from 18th century such as industrial revolution, world wars, redrawal of national boundaries, colonization, decolonization, political philosophies like communism, capitalism, socialism etc.— their forms and effect on the society.

Context: 

50 years after the Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975, its legacy continues. Millions of Vietnamese still suffer severe health effects from wartime Agent Orange exposure used by USA.

More on the News

• Estimates suggest that currently, there are 3 million people, including many children who are still suffering from serious health issues associated with exposure to Agent Orange.
• Between 1961 and 1971, the US sprayed around 74 million litres of chemicals over South Vietnam, and border areas of Laos and Cambodia. More than half of this was Agent Orange.

Agent Orange

• It was a blend of herbicides that US forces sprayed over Vietnam to defoliate trees and shrubs and kill food crops. 

• The chemical comprised a 50-50 mixture of two herbicides — 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T — and a toxic contaminant, known as dioxin. 

• Short-term vs. long-term toxicity: While Agent Orange degraded within days or weeks, its dioxin could persist in sunlit soil for up to three years—and far longer if buried or trapped in river sediments.

• Environmental contamination: When leaching underground or into waterways, dioxin’s half-life exceeded 100 years, infiltrating fish, ducks, and other food sources consumed by humans.

• Exposure routes: Beyond contaminated food, people absorbed dioxin through airborne dust, skin contact, and accidental ingestion, creating multiple pathways for long-term harm.

• Persistence in the body: Once inside humans, dioxin accumulated with a half-life of up to 20 years, prolonging its toxic effects for generations.

Impact of Agent Orange on the people of Vietnam 

• Over the years, Vietnam has asserted that those harmed by Agent Orange included the second, third, and even fourth-generation relatives of those who experienced the spraying, because of dioxin lingering in the environment or inherited health effects. 
• Apart from cancer and diabetes, one of the most prominent health issues among Vietnamese people has been birth defects such as spina bifida (when a baby’s spine and spinal cord do not develop properly), oral clefts, cardiovascular defects, hip dislocations and hypospadias (where the opening of the urethra is not at the tip of the penis).  
• Estimates by the Vietnamese Red Cross in the early 2000s indicated at least 150,000 affected children.

Environmental Damage: 

• The use of Agent Orange also caused wide-scale damage to the environment in Vietnam. 
• A 1983 report, also published by Science, revealed that many sprayed upland forests that villagers tried to convert to agriculture were “unsuitable for growing crops and the land has become covered with a coarse, deep-rooting grass.

Present Status

• In 2006, the US finally got together with Vietnam and began to clean up Agent Orange from the environment. However, as the process of cleanup is long and very expensive, there are large sites in Vietnam where the work is far from over. 

• For instance, in Da Nang, where an air base was contaminated during storage and transportation of Agent Orange, an area the size of 10 soccer fields remains heavily contaminated, according to a report by the Associated Press.