When the Vietnam War finally ended on April 30, 1975, it left behind a landscape
scarred with environmental damage
. Vast stretches of coastal mangroves, once housing rich stocks of fish and birds, lay in ruins. Forests that had boasted hundreds of species were reduced to dried-out fragments, overgrown with invasive grasses.
The term “
ecocide” had been coined in the late 1960s
To characterize the U.S. military’s employment of herbicides such as Agent Orange along with incendiary devices like napalm against guerrilla fighters who utilized jungles and marshes as concealment.
Half a century later, Vietnam’s damaged ecosystems and soil and water contaminated with dioxins continue to bear witness.
the long-term ecological consequences
efforts to repair this ravaged terrain resulting from the conflict.
even to evaluate the lasting damage
have been limited.
As an
environmental scientist and anthropologist
Having been involved in work related to Vietnam since the 1990s, I am profoundly troubled by the lack of attention and sluggish rehabilitation initiatives. Despite the conflict prompting new global agreements intended to safeguard the environment during times of war, these measures did not succeed in mandating post-war recuperation for Vietnam. Currently, this continues to be an issue.
conflicts in Ukraine
and
the Middle East
show these laws and treaties still aren’t effective.
Agent Orange and daisy cutters
The U.S.
first sent ground troops
to Vietnam in March 1965 to support South Vietnam against revolutionary forces and North Vietnamese troops, but the war had been going on for years before then. To fight an elusive enemy operating clandestinely at night and from hideouts deep in swamps and jungles, the U.S. military turned to environmental modification technologies.
The most well-known of these was
Operation Ranch Hand
, which sprayed at least 19 million gallons (75 million liters) of herbicides over
approximately 6.4 million acres
(2.6 million hectares) of South Vietnam were affected. These chemicals landed not only on forests but also on rivers, rice fields, and villages, affecting both civilians and soldiers. Over fifty percent of this spraying was done using the dioxin-laden herbicide known as Agent Orange.
Herbicides were used to
remove the foliage covering from forests
, enhance visibility alongside travel pathways and
destroy crops suspected
of supplying guerrilla forces.
When reports of the destruction caused by these methods reached the United States, scientists expressed worries regarding the ecological consequences of the operation.
to President Lyndon Johnson
, calling for a review of whether the U.S. was intentionally using chemical weapons. American military leaders’ position was that herbicides
did not qualify as chemical weapons
as per the Geneva Protocol, despite the U.S. not having ratified it yet.
During the conflict, scientific bodies likewise commenced research efforts inside Vietnam.
finding widespread destruction
from mangroves, financial damages to rubber and timber plantations, as well as damage to lakes and waterways.
In 1969, findings connected a compound in Agent Orange, known as 2,4,5-T, to various health issues.
congenital anomalies and fetal deaths in mice
since it included TCDD, a highly dangerous dioxin. This resulted in a prohibition on its domestic usage and
halt in the usage of Agent Orange by military forces in April 1970
, with the last mission
flown in early 1971
.
Incendiary weapons and the clearing of forests also ravaged rich ecosystems in Vietnam.
The U.S. Forest Service
tested extensive burning of forests
by igniting barrels of fuel oil dropped from planes. Particularly feared by civilians was the use of napalm bombs, with
more than 400,000 tons
from the heavy oil utilized during the conflict. Following these conflagrations,
Invasive grasses frequently dominated the area.
in hardened, infertile soils.
“Armored Bull Dozers,” huge earthmoving machines equipped with a fortified cutting blade,
could clear one thousand acres a day
Massive explosive bombs referred to as “daisy cutters” laid waste to entire woodlands and generated seismic waves that exterminated every living thing within a 3,000-foot (900-meter) perimeter, even worms buried in the ground.
The U.S. was also involved in weather manipulation through
Project Popeye
, a covert operation between 1967 and 1972 aimed at extending the monsoon season by seeding clouds with silver iodide, in hopes of reducing the movement of enemy combatants and resources along supply routes.
Ho Chi Minh Trail
From North Vietnam. Congress ultimately approved a bipartisan resolution in 1973.
urging an international treaty
to prohibit the use of weather modification as a weapon of war. That treaty
came into effect
in 1978.
The U.S. military contended that all these tactics were operationally successful as a
trade of trees for American lives
.
Even with Congress expressing reservations, the environmental effects of US military activities and innovations received minimal examination. Accessing research facilities was difficult, and consistent ecological oversight was nonexistent.
The progress of recovery has been sluggish.
Following the capture of Saigon by North Vietnamese forces on April 30, 1975, the United States experienced significant changes.
enacted a trade and economic blockade
Across all of Vietnam, the nation was left both war-torn and financially strapped.
Vietnamese scientists informed me that they put together modest-sized studies. One of them discovered a
significant decline in biodiversity among birds and mammals
In the A Lǜ Valley of central Vietnam, 80% of the forests affected by herbicides hadn’t regenerated by the early 1980s. According to biologists’ findings, these regions were home to just 24 bird species and five types of mammals, significantly fewer than what would typically be observed in unaffected forested areas.
Only a handful of ecosystem restoration projects were attempted, hampered by shoestring budgets. The most notable began in 1978, when foresters began
hand-replanting mangroves
at the mouth of the Saigon River in Cần Giờ forest, an area that had been completely denuded.
In inland areas, widespread
tree-planting programs
in the late 1980s and 1990s finally took root, but they focused on planting exotic trees like acacia, which did not restore the original diversity of the natural forests.
Chemical cleanup is still underway
For years, the U.S. also denied responsibility for Agent Orange cleanup, despite the recognition of
dioxin-associated illnesses among U.S. veterans
and
tests showed persistent dioxin exposure continued
Among possibly tens of thousands of Vietnamese.
The initial reconciliation pact between the two nations was established in 2006, marking the first such agreement.
ongoing promotion by veterans, scientists, and non-governmental groups
Led Congress to allocate $3 million for cleaning up the Da Nang airport.
The project, finished in 2018,
treated 150,000 cubic meters
Of soil contaminated with dioxins at a final cost exceeding $115 million, which was predominantly borne by the U.S. Agency for International Development, also known as USAID.
cleanup required
Lakes set for draining along with contaminated soil, which penetrated over 9 feet (3 meters) deeper than anticipated, will be stacked and subjected to heat treatment aimed at breaking down the dioxin molecules.
Another major hot spot is the heavily contaminated Biên Hoà airbase, where local residents continue to
ingest high levels of dioxin
through fish, chicken and ducks.
Agent Orange barrels were stored at the base, which leaked large amounts of the toxin into soil and water, where it continues to accumulate in animal tissue as it moves up the food chain. Remediation began in 2019; however, further work is
at risk with the Trump administration’s
near elimination of USAID, leaving it unclear if there will be any American experts in Vietnam in charge of administering this complex project.
Regulations aimed at stopping potential ‘ecocide’ in the future are complex.
Although Agent Orange’s impact on human health has rightly attracted attention, its extensive ecological repercussions over time have received inadequate examination.
Today’s scientists have many more choices compared to their counterparts from 50 years ago, such as access to satellite images, which are
being used in Ukraine
to identify fires, flooding and pollution. However, these tools cannot replace on-the-ground monitoring, which often is restricted or dangerous during wartime.
The legal landscape is equally intricate.
In 1977, the Geneva Conventions, which dictate behavior during times of war, were updated to forbid “extensive, enduring, and serious harm to the natural environment.”
1980 protocol
restricted incendiary weapons. Yet oil fires set by Iraq
During the Persian Gulf War in 1991
, and recent environmental damage in
the Gaza Strip
,
Ukraine
and
Syria
indicate the limits of relying on treaties when there are no strong mechanisms to ensure compliance.
An
international campaign
currently underway calls for an amendment to the
Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court
to
add ecocide
as a fifth prosecutable crime alongside genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression.
Some countries have adopted their own
ecocide laws
Vietnam became the first country to explicitly define “ecocide,” or the destruction of the natural environment, as a crime against humanity in its criminal code, regardless of whether it occurs during peacetime or wartime. However, even with this legislation, no prosecutions have been initiated, despite numerous significant instances of pollution.
Both
Russia and Ukraine
Additionally, there are ecocide laws in place; however, they haven’t stopped the harm or led to accountability for damages throughout the continuing conflict.
Lessons for the future
The Vietnam War serves as a stark reminder that neglecting ecological repercussions, whether during conflict or afterward, can lead to lasting damage. The scarcity lies in the political commitment needed to prevent such impacts from being overlooked or replicated in future conflicts.
This article has been republished from
The Conversation
, a non-profit, independent news agency providing you with factual and reliable insights to help navigate our intricate world. It was authored by:
Pamela McElwee
,
Rutgers University
Read more:
- The impact of war on the body can persist through multiple generations, just as it did for the children of those who fought in the Vietnam War.
- Protests against war 50 years ago played a role in shaping today’s Christian right movement.
Pamela McElwee is funded by the Carnegie Corporation, the National Science Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
