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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