Part 1
During the U.S. war in Viet Nam, innovative weapons with enormous fire power were not an effective counter to guerrilla warfare of the North Vietnamese Army and the Liberation Army of South Viet Nam. In order to change the passive stance and cut off the aid from the North to the South, the U.S. military engaged in a chemical warfare that lasted for 10 years, between 1961 and 1972.
In early 1961, President John F. Kennedy and the U.S. National Security Council approved many bills, including two articles which stipulated the use of defoliants in South Viet Nam. Accordingly, the defoliation plan was completely in the hands of the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam (MACV) and the U.S. Embassy in South Viet Nam. In June 1961, Viet Nam and the United States jointly established a Combat Development and Test Centre in Sài Gòn in a bid to experiment with herbicides, defoliants and devices designed to weaponize toxic chemicals in the South. Additionally, the Committee 202, whose name was a combination oftwo code numbers, i.e. “Action plan No. 20” and “Action plan No. 2,” was established, with the explicit aims as follows:
- Using toxic chemicals to eliminate forest cover, to strip trees of their leaves to detect and reveal the location of enemy armed forces;
- Using toxic chemicals to remove plants along arterial roads and around army posfs, airbases and military bases to ensure safety of the United States and its allied forces;
- Using toxic chemicals to destroy the food crops supposedly used as the enemy's food supply.
Between July and December 1961, toxic chemicals and defoliation devices were constantly transported to South Viet Nam by sea and by air, using a variety of Carriers such as American, Gracer, Overseas Suzanne, etc., which docked at the Tân Lâm ferry (Biên Hòa), Nha Trang, Cam Ranh, Quy Nhơn and Đà Nẵng ports. The chemicals were stored in Kon Tum, and later transported to Biên Hòa, Phù Cát and Đà Nẵng airbases.
Chemical drums loaded onfo airplanes at the Đà Nẵng Airbase. Source: War Remnants Museum
The “Ranch Hand” sign at Nha Trang Airbase. Source: War History Online
In December 1961, President John F. Kennedy authorized herbicide operations. On January 12, 1962, the U.S. Air Force flew ifs first spray mission in South Viet Nam. The U.S. chemical warfare in South Viet Nam lasted for more than 10 years and could be divided into two phases:
- Phase 1 (1961 - 1965): The United States experimented and secretly allowed the use of herbicides for defoliation. For the reason of clearing land for runways, the program of spraying herbicides and defoliants, whose codename was “Operation Hades” and later “Operation Ranch Hand” was promptly implemented by the U.S. military.
- Phase 2 (1965 - 1972): the United States and its allied forces publicly used defoliants and several types of toxic gases in high concentration. Only in three years (between 1967 and early 1969) the U.S. military sprayed 3⁄4 of the total amount of toxic chemicals used in the entire Viet Nam War. A lot of innovative modern equipment such as C-123 and UC-123B transport aircraft were employed by the U.S. military in the spray missions for clearing vast tracts of land.
From 1961 to 1972, the U.S. military conducted 19,905 missions, spraying approximately 80 million litres of various toxic chemicals, 61% of which was Agent
Orange containing 366 kilogrammes of dioxin, over nearly a quarter of the total land of South Viet Nam; damaging more than 3.06 million hectares of forest and flat land. The average measure of the sprayed chemicals was about 17 times higher than that was allowed in agriculture.
ln summary, the United States signed the Geneva Protocol in 1925 to commit ifself not to use all types of chemical weapons, but by 1961, it had almost finished testing various toxic chemicals, which were later put into use in defoliation missions in South Viet Nam.
To be continued...