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The Past And Present Of Agent Orange

Dawn Reel wears a ribbon supporting Agent Orange victims outside US Court 18 in New York.
Dawn Reel wears a ribbon supporting Agent Orange victims outside US Court 18 in New York.

Most know Agent Orange as the powerful herbicide the U.S military used during the Vietnam War.The goal at the time was to wipe out the food supply in North Vietnam and cripple the Viet Cong army.

The chemical had a much more insidious impact.Generations of Vietnamese people have been plagued by cancer, miscarriages, and birth defects as a result of Agent Orange. 

Despite Agent Orange being banned in the U.S. in 1971, the U.S Forest Service still sprayed a similar cocktail in communities across the United States according to some environmental activists.

A new documentary, “The People v. Agent Orange,” tracks the decades-long fight against the use of the herbicide through the activism of two women—one American, one Vietnamese.

We’ll speak to one of them about the past and present of Agent Orange.

Copyright 2021 WAMU 88.5

Haili Blassingame