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US Is Finally Cleaning Up Agent Orange In Vietnam

Posted by samzenpus on from the we're-gonna-need-a-bigger-mop dept.

derekmead writes "It only took 40 years. And yes, Washington still disputes Hanoi's claim that up to 4 million Vietnamese suffered contact with the defoliant, which was dumped en masse in a U.S. air campaign to scorch away the dense jungle cover under which guerilla fighters hid. But the AP reports that the U.S. is finally set to start cleaning up the mess. The numbers are staggering: Between 1962 and 1971, the U.S. military sprayed some 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and a galaxy of other herbicides on nearly a quarter of former South Vietnam. The defoliant ate through about 5 millions acres – a tract comparable in size to Massachusetts – of forest. An additional half-million acres of crops were decimated."

4 of 277 comments (clear)

  1. Tough luck by russotto · · Score: -1, Troll

    They were the enemy. They won. If they didn't think (or weren't in a position) to impose terms requiring cleanup as part of a peace settlement, the US doesn't owe them anything now.

  2. Re:Decimated? by Centurix · · Score: -1, Troll

    317,460 hogsheads covered 1,999,992 square furlongs in 408 fortnights, nice going USA!

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    Task Mangler
  3. Re:monsanto by Penurious+Penguin · · Score: -1, Troll

    You'll probably get mod'd "troll" around here with such sensible comments, but I agree. Agent Orange, Aroclor xxxx - PCB, "corn", Terminator seeds, rBGH.
    WTF's next? Genetically Modified Lobbyists?

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    Forward! -- Emperor Norton, 2012
  4. Re:If I was cynical... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    My yard would be beautiful too, if any domestic herbicides worked so well.

    You notice the U.S. shoulders the blame for any bad outcomes , anytime, anywhere.
    How 'bout we notice the need to defoliate the jungle to save lives threatened by the commie-roaches from N.Vietnam.
    What were we supposed to do, send in illegal Mexicans to pull the weeds? We used something that worked. Like most crap
    out there today , we didn't know the side effects. Thank the labs and "scientists" and the corporations that put it out.
    Thank the N. Vietnamese for bringing about the necessity. Thank the silly hippies, now employed in our colleges and media for
    blowing the role of everything out of proportion and obscuring important points as per usual.
    Thank complete morons like Karl Marx for contributing ideas he thought up in prison to the whole situation.
    If the U.S. gets to shoulder the blame, we'd like to cite contributors and sponsors.