This book tells the story of Agent Orange, its usage and the policies that surround it. Agent Orange contains a contaminant known as TCDD. It was the most widely used defoliant from 1965 – 1970 and became one of three major tactical herbicides used in Vietnam. More than 45 major health studies were conducted with Vietnam veterans from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Korea seeking a relationship between veterans’ health and TCDD. Allegations of birth defects in the families of Vietnam veterans and the Vietnamese represented a case study in propaganda and deliberate misinformation by the government of Vietnam. The Policies of the US Government implemented by Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) identified 17 recognized associated presumptive diseases that failed the tests of “cause and effect” and common sense. This book tells the story of Agent Orange, its usage, the health studies and those policies from a diverse range of perspectives, delving intoscience, statistics, history, policy and ethics. It is of interest to scholars engaged in history, political and social philosophy and ethics.
For more than 50 years, Dr. Alvin L. Young has collected documents, reports, and photographs of the use of Agent Orange and other herbicides used in the Vietnam Conflict. He has published four books and more than 85 peer reviewed publications/editorials/commentaries on the herbicides (and the associated dioxin contaminant) used in Vietnam. He completed his Ph.D. in Herbicide Physiology and Environmental Toxicology at Kansas State University in 1968. He began his Air Force career as a Project Scientist with the United States Air Force in 1968, evaluating both the dissemination characteristics of the Air Force aircraft and the fate of the herbicides used in South Vietnam.
In his 22 years with the Air Force (obtaining the rank of Colonel), he was involved with all phases of the Agent Orange Controversy, from test and evaluation of equipment to environmental fate and health impacts.
From 1983-87, Dr. Young was assigned to the Executive Office ofthe President, Washington, D.C., where he provided advice to the White House on the issues of Agent Orange and Dioxins. From 1987-1998, he was a Science Advisor for the United States Department of Agriculture. From 1998 to 2001, he was the Director, Center for Risk Excellence, United States Department of Energy, Argonne, Illinois. His expertise is on the use, and human and environmental risks associated with military herbicides used in South Vietnam, 1962-1971. From January 2002 through December 2005, Dr. Young was a Visiting Professor and Senior Fellow with the Institute for Science and Public Policy at The University of Oklahoma, where he prepared a report for the Department of Defense on the topic: “Agent Orange: Use, Disposition, and Environmental Fate.” That report was subsequently prepared as a book entitled
The History, Use, Disposition, and Environmental Fate of Agent Orange and published by Springer in April 2009.
