Agent orange

⚔ Kemisk våben opfundet af admiral Elmo Zumwalt i USA.
Anvendt af USA som et led i økologisk krigsførelse under krigen mod Vietnam fra 1961 til 1971 i en operation, kaldet Operation Ranch Hand. Navnet skyldes farvekoder. Løvfældningsmidlet som produceres af de amerikanske kemikalievirksomheder Dow Chemical Co. og Montanso Co., transporteres i gule dunke. To andre gifte hed Agent White og Agent Blue. USA anvendte, ifølge SIPRI 1984, 44,3 mio. l Agent orange i Vietnam, Laos og Cambodia. Ialt anvendtes 72,3 mio. l gifte indeholdende 55 millioner kg aktive giftstoffer, herunder 170 kg dioxin; hovedelementet i Agent orange. Det er den største mængde kemiske våben nogensinde anvendt i krig.
I 1969 opdagede videnskabsmænd, at et af giftenes komponenter forårsagede fosterskader på forsøgsdyr og i december 1970 standsede USAs daværende præsident Richard M. Nixon anvendelsen af kemiske våben i Vietnam.
Blandt de videnskabsmænd der var med til at dokumentere miljøødelæggelserne i Vietnam var botanikeren Arthur H. Westing.
400.000 vietnamesere skades alvorligt eller døde som en følge af giftstoffer og antallet af tilskadekommende er voksende. Dertil er omkring en halv mio. børn født med defekter som en følge af Agent orange. Ansvaret for anvendelsen af giftstofferne er ikke placeret.

Agent orange menes at forårsage:

  1. Hodgkings-disease
  2. kræft i lunger eller bronkier
  3. prostata-kræft
  4. kræft i næse og svælg
  5. brystkræft
  6. knoglekræft
  7. leukæmi
  8. hudkræft
  9. spontane aborter
  10. lav fødselsvægt
  11. effekt på hjernens udvikling
  12. forringet sædkvalitet
  13. motoriske forstyrelser
  14. deformation af gener

I USA menes omkring 270.000 af 2,3 mio. soldater udstationeret i Vietnam at være ramt af den kemiske krigsførelse.
Canadisk undersøgelse om anvendelsen af AO i Vietnam skal findes!

Se også: Befolkningskontrol ; Viet Nam Association of Agent Orange Victims ; the War Legacies Project.

Litteratur
GAO: Agent Orange : Actions Needed to Improve Accuracy and Communication of Information on Testing and Storage Locations, 2018.
Available shipment documentation indicates that nearly all of the Agent Orange procured was either used in U.S. military operations in Southeast Asia, used for testing, damaged, or destroyed. However, some records are incomplete, such as shipment documentation and logbooks that identify ports where vessels stopped on the way to Southeast Asia. GAO obtained and reviewed shipment documentation for over 12.1 million of the 13.9 million gallons of Agent Orange procured by the Department of Defense (DOD). GAO reviewed logbooks for 96 percent (152 of 158) of those shipments and identified that vessels stopped at various ports on the way to Southeast Asia, including at least one vessel carrying Agent Orange that stopped at Guam. While the logbooks GAO reviewed identify when vessels left various ports as they traveled to and from Vietnam, they do not show whether and how much cargo was loaded or unloaded at those ports.
DOD’s official list of herbicide testing and storage locations outside of Vietnam that is posted on the Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA) website is inaccurate and incomplete. For example, the list lacks clarity in descriptive information and omits both testing and storage locations and additional time periods covered by testing events. Also, the list has not been updated in over a decade, though DOD and VA have obtained reports on its shortcomings since 2006. Both DOD and VA communicate with veterans in response to inquiries about Agent Orange, but some veterans GAO met with expressed confusion regarding how to obtain information on potential exposure. DOD officials acknowledged this confusion and stated that veterans are contacting multiple agencies to obtain such information. However, DOD and VA have not established a formal process for coordinating on how best to communicate information to veterans and the public regarding the presence of Agent Orange outside of Vietnam. Without a reliable list with complete and accurate information and a formal process for DOD and VA to coordinate on communicating this information, veterans and the public do not have quality information about the full extent of locations where Agent Orange was present and where exposure could potentially have occurred.

Christine Ahn and Gwyn Kirk, "Agent Orange in Korea" (Washington, DC: Foreign Policy In Focus, July 7, 2011).
Beckett, Patric: Agent orange hærger endnu. I: Information, 07/30/2002.
Chandrasekaran, Rajiv: Vietnamkrigens nye ofre. I: Politiken, 04/25/2000.
CRS: Veterans Exposed to Agent Orange: Legislative History, Litigation, and Current Issues. / :Sidath Viranga Panangala; Daniel T. Shedd. 2014.
CRS: Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orance and U.S.-Vietnam Relations. / : Michael F. Martin, 2009.
Engell Friis, Mette: Giftskyens lange skygge. I: Jyllands-Posten, 04/12/2001.
Herbcides in War : The Long-term Ecological and Human Consequences. Arthur H. Westing [ed.]. - ISBN 0-85066-265-6
Hilsen fra Agent orange / Adam Armsinck ; Mette Engell Friis. I: Information, 05/04/2002
Inventory of the Sandra Davis Papers In the Regional History Center RC 309.
Northern Illinois Regional History Center, 2011?
- https://www.ulib.niu.edu/reghist/RC%20309.pdf
'The Sandra Davis Collection consists of research on the effects of Agent Orange on Vietnam veterans. It includes print publications, media, and documentation of veteran activism. The materials also touch upon Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.'
Jørgensen, Anders: Den orange agent vil ikke forsvinde. I: Information, 02/14/2004.
Leder: Agent orange. I: Information, 04/26/2005.
Michelsen, Johnni: Dommer afviser Agent orange-sag. I: Information, 04/26/2005.
Michelsen, Johnni: Verden støtter Vietnams ofre. I: Information, 04/26/2005.
Michelsen, Johnni: USA aflyser Agent orange undersøgelse. I: Information, 05/02/2005.
Michelsen, Johnni: Et våben, der bliver ved med at dræbe. I: Information, 04/26/2005.
New Jersey Agent Orange Commission 1980
- http://bluewaternavy.org/illness/Pointman2%206170308026.pdf
Det orange bånd / Adam Armsinck ; Mette Engell Friis. I: Information, 05/04/2002
Wilcox, Fred A.: Waiting for an Army to Die : The Tragedy Agent orange.
- ISBN 0-932020-68-2
United states – Vietnam scientific conference on human health and environmental effects of agent orange/dioxins march 3-6, 2002 Hanoi, Vietnam: The history of agent orange use in Vietnam: an historial overview from the veteran’s perspective . / : presented by Paul L. Sutton, national chairman Agent orange/dioxin committee Vietnam veterans of America, Inc. Silver Spring, Maryland, USA, 2002.
- https://www.hatfieldgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/VietNamHighlights/A%20%20HISTORY%20OF%20AGENT%20ORANGE%20USE.pdf
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs: Vets Get $2.2 Billion in Agent Orange Benefits. 09/01/2011.

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