ASA 150E
Week 8
The information that stood out the most to me in Fred A. Wilcox's Scorched Earth is what I got to learn about Agent Orange. The reason being is because I recall Professor Valverde touching on this historical moment in the beginning of the quarter and I remember asking on my index card: What is Agent Orange? Of course, I eventually learned the general information about it, but not in detail.
One quote from the text certainly caught my eye because it clearly states that the destruction of enemy crops was a violation of international law and would be considered a war crime: "Both departments advanced the use of herbicides for defoliation only, apparently recognizing that the destruction of enemy crops was a clear violation of international law and a war crime, and were therefore unwilling to explicitly endorse such a program" (10). Even so, the U.S. government gave the OK. Furthermore, when the Defoliation Campaign officially ended in 1970, they didn't stop the use of spraying from planes until 1973. Wilcox also notes that this doesn't mean they didn't send soldiers and others to spread the chemicals by motor vehicles and such. So, what were the consequences for this war crime, if any? Who held the U.S. accountable for their actions in destroying generations of Vietnamese ancestry?
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