AGENT ORANGE RECORD
Agent Orange Record provides a comprehensive and objective examination of the most devastating defoliant used in the U.S. war in Vietnam: its toxic legacies; its impact, intended and otherwise, on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia; and its unintended impacts on the United States. In order to promote greater understanding, Agent Orange Record also describes the efforts to repair the damage from the herbicides to land and people and includes a repository of the most critical resources on Agent Orange in English and Vietnamese.
WHAT WE DO
Making Agent Orange History
Watch this short video, made in partnership with the Aspen Institute's Agent Orange in Vietnam Program, to learn more about the continuing impact of Agent Orange-Dioxin in Vietnam and some of the most pressing issues of the herbicide's toxic legacy facing people around the world today.
The video summarizes and highlights the key issues Agent Orange Record and War Legacies Project are both working to redress—the human health and environmental consequences of U.S. wartime use of Agent Orange and other toxic herbicides.
OUR ISSUES
A Special Report, From Our Executive Director
This report, "US Assistance to Vietnamese Families Impacted by Agent Orange," co-written by our Executive Director, Susan Hammond, reviews the history of U.S.-Vietnam cooperation and examines assistance for those affected by Agent Orange, including families and caregivers, in Vietnam. The report identifies a need for comprehensive nonmedical support and offers recommendations to better address this need and further develop bilateral trust and respect.
The chemical was Agent Orange, the occasion was the U.S. war in Vietnam.
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A Brief History of Agent Orange
Between 1961 and 1971, the U.S. sprayed 12 million gallons of Dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange (in addition to 8 million gallons of other herbicides) on Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia—an average of 5,200 gallons a day for 3,735 days.
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By the end of Operation Ranch Hand in 1971, nearly 20,000 sorties had been flown. Over 7,813 square miles of upland and mangrove forests and 781 square miles of crops (an area roughly the size of New Hampshire) were destroyed. In total, more than 66,000 square miles of South Vietnam, along with large areas of Laos and parts of Cambodia, were impacted.
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The U.S. used Agent Orange and other herbicides to defoliate forests and destroy crop land in an effort to eliminate its enemies’ jungle hiding places and deny them food. The damage will continue for decades to come, as much of the herbicides used in the war were up to 50 times the concentration recommended for killing plants. Two-thirds of the herbicides used were also contaminated with TCDD, a form of Dioxin—a highly toxic substance linked to at least 19 classes of cancer and other medical conditions, as well as several birth defects.​
​Ever since the war’s end, the people of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia have been saddled with the lethal aftermath. Exposure to these toxic herbicides has yielded untold misery and health complications for those who served in Vietnam during the war, for their families, and for many others who were exposed to the herbicides where they were manufactured, used, or stored.