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Though the American war in Viêt Nam has been over for almost 30 years, hundreds of thousands of innocent children still suffer horrific, painfully sad birth deformities and other illnesses, as the effects of Agent Orange defoliant used by Americans enters a third generation. Between 1962 and 1971, the US employed chemical weapons by spraying more than 75 million litres of defoliants, containing almost 375 pounds of dioxin - the most dangerous chemical known to man - over massive areas of southern Viêt Nam. The chemical defoliant's main purpose was to destroy Viêt Nam's dense tropical foliage and mountain jungles that served as excellent cover for the North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viêt Cong. It was also used to clear L.Z.'s, or helicopter landing zones and to push back concealing foliage around air bases, army posts and roads, as well as to destroy croplands potentially used by enemy forces and to compel farmers to leave their homes for concentration camps, or pacified areas controlled by US or South Vietnamese forces. Along with other chemical weapons - including Agent Green, Agent Purple, Agent White, Agent Blue and Agent Pink, Agent Orange and Agent Super Orange were extremely successful in turning lush tropical forests into barren wastelands that are today still believed to be irreversibly altered. Agent Orange accounted for approximately 60% of all defoliants used, which in total destroyed 50% of Viêt Nam's mangrove forests and had serious effects on wildlife populations. The contamination of Viêt Nam with dioxin, had it's beginnings during WWII in the laboratory of Professor E. J. Kraus - of the University of Chicago's botany department. Kraus had contacted the War Department with the discovery of specific plant hormones that regulate growth. Although military testing began immediately on the hormone scientifically named 2,4-dichorophenoxyacetic (2,4-D ) - which in heavy doses killed broadleaf plants endemic to the tropics - WWII ended before any real combat applications were possible.
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