Chemical Warfare in the Vietnam War

...

Napalm was created during a secret military operation between top science professors and students at Harvard University and the U.S. government. The main participant in the experiment was a student at Harvard named Louis Feiser (Lemann). The U.S. had an agreement that they would only use Feiser’s burning agent to get rid of abandoned houses. Little did Feiser know at the time that Napalm would profoundly affect thousands of innocent Vietnamese citizens and soldiers (Lemann).

The first use of Napalm was not in Vietnam, however, rather about a thousand miles away in Japan during World War II. It was used to attack sixty-four major Japanese cities (Chemical). Most of the attacks occurred all on the same night. It is estimated that over 100,000 innocent Japanese citizens were burned to death, and thousands more were injured (Chemical). In addition to Vietnam and Japan, Napalm also plagued Iraq in 2003 during a U.S. invasion.

The Vietnam War continued to drag on, and by 1969 there were nearly 600,000 U.S. troops in Vietnam with over 30,000 American soldiers killed and over 100,000 seriously wounded (Statistical). But even with the strong U.S. military, chemical weapons, and South Vietnamese forces, the North Vietnamese were still controlling most of the country. Back in America, news of the war was spreading, and peace demonstrations were taking place in major U.S. cities (Vietnam War). Eventually the U.S. government began gradually withdrawing soldiers from Vietnam.

The American troops were slowly losing hope and were beginning to accept the fact that they could not stop Vietnam from becoming communist. There were many factors that made the North Vietnamese troops stronger than the U.S. and South Vietnam. The Vietcong and other North Vietnamese t[pic 5]roops were using guerrilla warfare tactics such as hit and run attacks that were very effective, especially in a jungle-like area (National). Also, North Vietnam had two powerhouse countries backing them; Russia and China, which were providing them with advanced weapons. Another factor that prevented America from winning was that they were trying to wage a war that was nearly 8,500 miles away (The Winds Of War). This distance made it very difficult to provide foreign aid. The North Vietnamese were motivated, focused and determined to fight to unite their country.

Due to the fact that America and South Vietnam were being overpowered, they began to increasingly fight dirty. A year prior to removing the troops, in March of 1968, the U.S. initiated one of the most gruesome massacres in history at My Lai, a region of Vietnam where many Vietnamese citizens were hiding out (National). The massacre at My Lai was possibly one of the most unjust and cruel events that the U.S. has ever carried out. Hundreds of innocent Vietnamese citizens were tortured and killed. U.S. soldiers first targeted the women and children. The soldiers raped the mothers, then forced them to watch their children be brutally tortured and eventually killed (Agent). Unarmed Vietnamese men would be ordered into a small ditch, then were shot at close range by machine guns. U.S. soldiers were commanded to “shoot anything that moves” (Agent). This horrific slaughter depicted unthinkable acts that defied human rights and justice. Almost no one survived the massacre at My Lai, leaving very few victims to tell the stories that have haunted them ever since. The truth of these sad acts of injustice were brought to light by a few brave U.S. soldiers who refused to go along with the orders and reported the war crimes (The Winds Of War).

A combination of chemical warfare, massacres of innocent people, and No[pic 6]rth Vietnam overpowering the U.S., finally forced President Richard Nixon to pull the troops out of Vietnam permanently (Vietnam War). In 1973, Nixon and the North Vietnamese signed the Paris Peace Agreement, and the Americans withdrew from Vietnam by 1974 (Brigham). Even though the Americans left, the U.S. government was still sending millions of dollars worth of supplies over to aid the South. But, a year later, in 1975, South and North Vietnam finally became united as a communist state (The Winds Of War). Even though there is no more war in Vietnam, the country is still suffering to this day. The entire infrastructure of Vietnam was ruined by this futile war war, and the United States was mostly to blame. Thousands of Vietnamese citizens tried to flee Vietnam after the conclusion of the war because of the poor living conditions and crumbled government. Not to mention the thousands of acres of farmland that were destroyed by the chemicals Napalm and Agent Orange, and the hundreds of thousands of people that had been killed in the war (Vietnam War). Vietnam now is one of the poorest countries in the world.

The U.S not only ruined Vietnam, but negatively impacted itself as well. Nearly 60,000 U.S. soldiers died in Vietnam, and countless others were wounded physically and psychologically, along with the many who still suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Statistical). In addition to thousands of families haunted by the war, the U.S. government had also lost confidence. They had failed to prevent communism from spreading. Additionally, they were wrong about other countries becoming communist (Agent). Even though Vietnam may be run under a communist government/economy, nearby countries were not affected by the change in Vietnam and were not influenced.

[pic 7] Although the damage was done, and no amount of money could ever fix the horrible injustice, some compensation was offered. Four years after the conclusion of the war, in 1979, a lawsuit was filed on the behalf of over 2.4 million Vietnamese veterans who were unknowingly exposed to the deadly dioxins in Agent Orange (Agent). The lawsuit ended with a settlement. Several chemical companies that had manufactured Agent Orange paid over 180 million dollars in compensation. But that couldn’t begin to help these victims (Agent). The long-lasting effects of this harmful chemical are irreparable. The issues that many veterans suffered, and continue to suffer, include: rashes, skin conditions, neurological disorders, diabetes, leukemia, Hodgkins disease, and many types of cancer, as well as psychological problems (Agent). In addition to the veterans having health issues, it is estimated that 2 million children were born with birth defects due to the parents being exposed to the dioxins in Agent Orange. Because these defects were the result of genetic changes and mutations, the same defects could be passed on to generations to come (Szczepanski).

Some may think that this extreme method of warfare was necessary to fight the fierce and relentless Vietcong and other North Vietnamese troops, but it most certainly was not necessary. The chemicals used