Saturday, February 22, 2020

Week 8_Melanie Manuel_ASA 150E


Melanie Manuel
ASA 150E 001
21 February 2020

The first chapter of Fred A. Wilcox’s Scorched Earth: Legacy of Chemical Warfare in Vietnam, titled, “Ecocide” posits that the reality of using Agent Orange was a misled attempt at completely stripping the Vietnamese of once easily accessible resources. I find it hard to believe that the scientists and the armed guards that respectively created and administered Agent Orange were in the dark about the consequences. This mass wide ignorance seems all too good to be true, because you have “all means necessary” rhetoric prevalent through American opinion when discussing the Viet Nam War, so that already tells you the kind of twisted ideologies that prevail when considering the ethics of the Viet Nam War. That in itself is tragic and horrifying to realize that this is also the legacy of chemical warfare—it is reasoned by either feigned ignorance for the aftermath after use or self-justification for its use, without an apology or even compensation for the years of pain, death, and discomfort that this has brought. A part of me still wonders whether the United States still has access to Agent Orange and if it would be used again, but my gut tells me that they would if they could, and it wouldn’t be very surprising if they did either.   

I include an image of a plane administering Agent Orange. 


Works Cited
Wilcox, Fred A. Scorched Earth: Legacy of Chemical Warfare in Vietnam, 2011.

Image Used
https://www.military.com/benefits/veterans-health-care/agent-orange.html

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