During the Vietnam War, U.S. forces used defoliants to deprive North Vietnamese forces of cover by spraying these substances over forests in Vietnam. The most infamous defoliant used during the war was called Agent Orange, a mixture of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D in a 1:1 ratio. Over a million people in Vietnam developed major illnesses due to exposure to Agent Orange after the war.
Britain was the first country to use defoliants as a weapon of war during the Malayan Emergency. They created a substance similar to Agent Orange that also contained a toxin called dioxin, which was responsible for the Seveso disaster of 1976. Alongside Agent Orange, the U.S. developed a mixture of cacodylic acid, sodium cacodylate, and water to destroy rice plants, as they were difficult to destroy even with fire.
The use of defoliants has been banned against civilian populations since 1980, but its effects on civilians during the Vietnam War were significant. The substance burns, spreads easily, and sticks to surfaces, with its effects famously captured in a photo taken by Nick Ut in 1972 that depicted nine children fleeing from napalm bombs dropped on their village during the Tet offensive.
At a U.N. conference in June 1972, Olof Palme described the effects of defoliants in Vietnam as “ecocide” and advocated for it to be designated an international crime.
A Vietnamese flag can be seen flying atop the State Bank building near the Vietcombank and Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam buildings in central Hanoi on November 23rd