FILE HF-0016
Agent Orange
South Vietnam, Vietnam · 1962–1971
Between 1962 and 1971, the United States military sprayed approximately 20 million gallons of herbicides — most extensively Agent Orange, contaminated with dioxin — over South Vietnam to destroy forest cover and crops as a counterinsurgency tactic. The program is linked to widespread and long-term health effects among Vietnamese civilians, Vietnamese and allied soldiers, and their descendants, though attributing specific individual health outcomes to exposure remains scientifically and legally contested in many cases.