The Brutal History Of Agent Orange And Its Tragic Victims

From 1961 to 1971, the U.S. used the herbicide and defoliant Agent Orange in Vietnam, leaving behind millions of victims with deadly diseases and birth defects.

For ten years in Vietnam, it rained a chemical mist. It was the height of the Vietnam War in the 1960s, and planes and helicopters flew above the country’s fields, spraying a toxic chemical called Agent Orange.

A potent herbicide mixture deployed by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, Agent Orange devastated both the country’s landscape and the health of those exposed. More than 3 million people became victims of Agent Orange in the aftermath of its use between 1961 and 1971 — and many of them suffered unimaginable torment.

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1 of 25Three planes fly over Vietnam releasing chemicals.

Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971.Wikimedia Commons 2 of 25Le Van O., a 14-year-old boy who was born without eyes because of the effects of Agent Orange.

Hanoi, Vietnam. March 28, 2006.HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images 3 of 25An aerial photograph showing the effects of Agent Orange. The land on the left hasn’t been sprayed while the land on the right has.

Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971.Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. Collection: Agent Orange Subject Files/The Vietnam Center and Archive/Texas Tech University 4 of 25Not all of the chemicals were sprayed from above. These soldiers are spraying crops from atop a vehicle, getting up close and personal with the dangerous chemicals.

Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971.Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. Collection: Agent Orange Subject Files/The Vietnam Center and Archive/Texas Tech University 5 of 25A ten-year-old girl born without arms writes in her schoolbook.

Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam. December 2004.Wikimedia Commons 6 of 25A five-year-old boy, born blind and mute because of Agent Orange poisoning, sits at the barred window of an orphanage.

Hue, Vietnam. March 9, 2011.Paula Bronstein /Getty Images 7 of 25Soldiers down below help spray Agent Orange on the jungle, getting a dangerous dose of the chemicals all over their skins in the process.

Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971.Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. Collection: Agent Orange Subject Files/The Vietnam Center and Archive/Texas Tech University 8 of 2555-year-old Kan Lay holds her 14-year-old son, born with severe physical disabilities because of Agent Orange.

A Lưới, Vietnam. August 6, 2013.Wikimedia Commons 9 of 25Tran Thi Nghien bathes her handicapped daughter, an Agent Orange victim who is incapable of bathing herself. Cam Lo, Vietnam. March 8, 2011.Paula Bronstein/Getty Images 10 of 25Hoang Duc Mui, a Vietnamese veteran, speaks to American veterans during a visit to Friendship Village, Hanoi’s shelter for Agent Orange victims.

Hanoi, Vietnam. September 25, 2003.HOANG DINH NAM/AFP/Getty Images 11 of 25A soldier, after spraying the land with Agent Orange, tries to wash himself clean in some of the very waters that he had helped pollute.

Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971.Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. Collection: Agent Orange Subject Files/The Vietnam Center and Archive/Texas Tech University 12 of 25An American veteran shows the long rashes across his arms that he developed from working with Agent Orange. Under his clothes, the rashes cover half of his body.

Brooklyn, New York. May 7, 1984.Bettmann/Getty Images 13 of 25A helicopter sprays Agent Orange.

Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971.Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. Collection: Agent Orange Subject Files/The Vietnam Center and Archive/Texas Tech University 14 of 25Lt. Kathleen Glover comforts an orphaned Vietnamese child.

After the war, Lt. Glover would come home and find out that she had contracted Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma from her exposure to Agent Orange.

Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971.RADM Frances Shea Buckley Collection/The Vietnam Center and Archive/Texas Tech University 15 of 25A man begs for money outside of a cathedral. He was born with a deformed arm because of Agent Orange, and it makes it nearly impossible for him to find work.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. June 1, 2009.Wikimedia Commons 16 of 25A group of American planes fly over top of the jungles and release chemicals meant to kill the trees underneath

Vietnam. Circa 1961-1971. Wikimedia Commons 17 of 25A child born without eyes lies in bed at an orphanage that takes care of 125 children, all born with disabilities because of Agent Orange.

Ba Vi, Vietnam. March 15, 2011.Paula Bronstein /Getty Images 18 of 25A helicopter sprays Agent Orange on Vietnamese farmland. Mekong River, Vietnam. July 26, 1969.Wikimedia Commons 19 of 25Nguyen Xuan Minh, a four-year child born with severe deformities because of Agent Orange, which Monsanto helped manufacture.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. May 2, 2005.Paula Bronstein/Getty Images 20 of 25A massive stack of 55-gallon drums full of Agent Orange waits to be poured over the people of Vietnam.

Location unspecified. Circa 1961-1971.Wikimedia Commons 21 of 25Nguyen The Hong Van, a 13-year-old girl who was born with skin disorders and a mental handicap. She grew up near a site where the army stored Agent Orange.

Danang, Vietnam. March 6, 2011.Paula Bronstein/Getty Images 22 of 25Military personnel demonstrate how to handle an Agent Orange leak, apparently growing increasingly aware of how dangerous the chemical they’d been using really is.

Okinawa, Japan. May 11, 1971.Wikimedia Commons 23 of 25Professor Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong poses for a photo with the handicapped children under her care. Every one of them was born with a defect caused by Agent Orange.

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. December 2004.Wikimedia Commons 24 of 25The third-generation child of an Agent Orange victim. Despite the generations between him and the Vietnam War, this boy still feels the effects and lives in a special village for Agent Orange victims.

Hanoi, Vietnam. November 10, 2007.A. Strakey/Flickr 25 of 25Like this gallery?Share it:

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Why The Victims Of Agent Orange Are Still Suffering To This Day View Gallery

Why The U.S. Military Used Agent Orange During The Vietnam War

The plan was to wipe out the enemy’s food supply. Agent Orange was an incredibly potent herbicide made even stronger in the hands of the U.S. and South Vietnamese Air Forces, who mixed it to 13 times its usual strength. It could obliterate whole farms and wipe out entire forests with nothing more than a gentle mist. Their plan was to leave the Viet Cong exposed and hungry — but they couldn’t have imagined the full impact that this plan would ultimately have.