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Agent Orange Shorts

By VVAW

Information which came to light during the class action suit against manufacturers of Agent Orange turned up a 1962 scientific paper giving a technique for testing the potential harm of dioxin. The study was financed by the Research and Development Division of the Army's Surgeon General. In another investigation a German scientific journal published dioxin toxicity information as early as 1957.

What this all adds up to is that both the companies that made it and the military that used it on veterans had a real fine idea of some of the dangers which could exist—but neither of them bothered to let us know!

Pentagon records show that Agent Orange was sprayed during the period October 1967 to July 1969 to remove vegetation from over 23 thousand acres along the demilitarized zone in Korea. According to the Defense Department, there were only US advisors to South Korean troops in the area at the time, and no US troops were known to be involved in the application of the herbicide.

According to a Dept of the Army publication Skin Diseases in Vietnam, 1965-1972, various skin problems "were never officially recorded because the men were not hospitalized for treatment. (p. 90)."