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Robert Thompson on Toxic War: the Story of Agent Orange

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Robert Thompson on Toxic War: the Story of Agent Orange Peter Sills. Toxic War: The Story of Agent Orange. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2014. x + 285 pp. $39.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8265-1962-7. Reviewed by Robert Thompson Published on H-War (April, 2016) Commissioned by Margaret Sankey (Air University) The use of the defoliant Agent Orange by the contaminant, and they kept that information se‐ United States is one of the most controversial ac‐ cret” (p. 13). tions of the Vietnam War. In Toxic War: The Story Throughout the book, the author weaves the of Agent Orange, Peter Sills provides much-need‐ history of America’s defoliant program with the ed clarity to the history of Agent Orange with his effects of such an endeavor. In that vein, Sills re‐ use of data made available by legal proceedings. counts the chemical industry’s development of de‐ The author discusses the development of defo‐ foliants and their controversial use against crops liants from the end of the Second World War and vegetation in the RVN. Arranged into twenty- through the Vietnam War. In particular, he focus‐ two short chapters, with an introduction and epi‐ es on the events preceding the class-action lawsuit logue, Toxic War emerged primarily from the doc‐ against the federal government and manufactur‐ uments made available during the discovery ers of the defoliants used in the Republic of Viet‐ phase of the frst class-action lawsuit about the nam (RVN). Sills endeavors to demonstrate that product as well as from interviews and fles ob‐ the chemical industry was aware of the dangers tained through the Freedom of Information Act. posed by defoliants to people. The chemical indus‐ In the foreword, Sills notes that he was “tangen‐ try never fully disclosed such knowledge. “Denial tially involved in that litigation” and knew the reigned supreme. Any evidence (and there was value of those court documents (p. ix). Indeed, plenty) showing that herbicides were counterpro‐ these memos and reports reveal that, from ob‐ ductive and causing enormous, unanticipated serving their own employees and conducting in‐ harm was simply brushed aside,” writes Sills. ternal studies, chemical companies knew that Moreover, “the chemical industry and at least a their defoliants caused chloracne and a range of few government scientists knew that these com‐ other ailments. pounds contained a hidden, extraordinary toxic H-Net Reviews Toxic War takes readers through the history veterans of the Vietnam War and their children. of the United States’ use of herbicides during the The author argues that the CDC’s efforts to better Vietnam War. Sills argues that the president of understand the harm caused by Agent Orange RVN, Ngo Dinh Diem, pressured his American failed to materialize as politics defeated science. backers to use defoliants against the Viet Cong. Ul‐ In chapter 19, Sills contends that the CDC strug‐ timately, the benefits of such use, notes the au‐ gled to develop a sample pool of afflicted veter‐ thor, were marginal as reports praised the psy‐ ans, with Congress’s Agent Orange Working Group chological effects of the chemicals despite their quietly instructing the CDC to end its research and minimal tactical impact. Nevertheless, “the United inform Veterans Affairs of the impossibility of States refused to abandon defoliation. The spray‐ completing such a study. Yet what Sills demon‐ ing program, like any good bureaucracy, had al‐ strates is that the CDC did a poor job of grasping ready developed its own momentum” (p. 57). Pro‐ the data and organizing a proper study rather grams like Trail Dust and Ranch Hand gained sup‐ than showing how politics thwarted research. In‐ port and more targets to spray with chemical deed, the author states, “CDC leapfrogged from its agents. Benefiting fnancially from the need for finding that the blood analyses couldn’t validate more and more 2,4,5-T (Agent Orange) were the military record to the determination that American businesses like Dow, Diamond Sham‐ they’d actually proved ground troops weren’t ex‐ rock, Hercules, Monsanto, Thompson Chemicals, posed. But if a study couldn’t be done because the and Thompson-Hayward, as well as the Canadian data isn’t good enough, how is it possible to come company Uniroyal. Sills also addresses the effects up with conclusive results from that same data?” on workers at the defoliant producing chemical (p. 198). plants. Like the American military personnel ex‐ In his effort to connect the legal documents posed to the defoliants, plant workers developed with the chemical industry’s culpability, the au‐ forms of cancer. thor creates a chaotic narrative. Toxic War con‐ Through his research, the author found evi‐ tains a range of dates not always consistent with dence of American attempts to keep the dangers chronology. For example, Sills opens chapter 11 of Agent Orange confidential. In his deposition, with events that occurred in 1966, yet in the sub‐ Edgewood Arsenal’s Charles Minarik, the “father sequent chapter, he addresses events from 1961. of Agent Orange,” was shown a form he complet‐ Even thematically, poor organization means read‐ ed to acquire a sample of dioxin for his own work ers will get lost the further they get into the book on herbicides (p. 75). For Sills, while Minarik de‐ as there are lengthy gaps between the discussion nied ever making such a request, Minarik’s re‐ of similar subtopics. Longer and better organized quest and denial displayed efforts to cover up the chapters would have greatly enhanced the clarity weaponization of dioxin. This implies that the fed‐ of the author’s arguments. Consequently, the orga‐ eral government actively hid and later denied its nization and structure of the book are the main research. weakness of Toxic War. The most significant component of Toxic War Questionable organization and structure is the author’s discussion of the federal govern‐ aside, Sills provides a thought-provoking and ment’s efforts to determine the existence of a link well-researched work. Academics and veterans of between defoliants with the long-term illnesses the Vietnam War will appreciate Toxic War be‐ exhibited by Vietnam War veterans. In the frst cause of the informative history of defoliants in half of the 1980s, the Center for Disease Control the RVN and the haunting legacy of their use. The (CDC) studied the effects of Agent Orange among primary sources used by the author ensure that 2 H-Net Reviews Toxic War is a significant addition to the histori‐ ography of the Vietnam War. If there is additional discussion of this review, you may access it through the network, at https://networks.h-net.org/h-war Citation: Robert Thompson. Review of Sills, Peter. Toxic War: The Story of Agent Orange. H-War, H-Net Reviews. April, 2016. URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=42005 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 3.
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