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“Hearts, Minds, And Herbicides: The Politics Of The Chemical War In Vietnam”, Edwin Martini
“Hearts, Minds, And Herbicides: The Politics Of The Chemical War In Vietnam”, Edwin Martini
Edwin A. Martini
In the early years of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, the Departments of State and Defense battled over the decision to use chemical herbicides to defoliate the landscape and destroy enemy access crops. While the Pentagon won the initial battle, allowing herbicidal warfare to proceed, State’s concerns about program ultimately proved prophetic as the chemical war waged by the United States in Southeast Asia further alienated the Vietnamese villagers the program was ostensibly designed to protect. This essay moves beyond previous studies of Operation Ranch Hand by exploring the politics of the herbicidal warfare, and crop destruction in particular, from Washington …
"Even We Can't Prevent Forests: The Chemical War And The Illusion Of Control", Edwin Martini
"Even We Can't Prevent Forests: The Chemical War And The Illusion Of Control", Edwin Martini
Edwin A. Martini
By exploring tactical and strategic uses of chemical agents beyond Agent Orange and the other ‘Rainbow Herbicides’ used as part of Operation Ranch Hand during the Vietnam War, this essay seeks to fill a gap in our under- standing of the chemical war waged by the United States in South-east Asia, and to make a contribution to the growing body of literature devoted to the intersections of military and environmental history. Taking seriously the roles played by both human and non-human actors, it explores how the White House and Pentagon continually attempted, unsuccessfully, to impose more stringent forms of control …