dod tactical herbicide sites - United States Department of Defense

The Distinction Between Tactical and Commercially ApprovedHerbicides Used in the Vietnam WarThere exists significant confusion as to how herbicides were selected by the military to beused in the defoliation program in the Vietnam War The belief that commerciallyavailable herbicides were simply purchased from the chemical companies and deployeddirectly to Vietnam is incorrect and contrary to historical records.The Military Development and Deployment of Tactical HerbicidesTactical Herbicides were herbicides developed specifically by the United StatesDepartment of Defense to be used in “combat operations”. The history of the militarydevelopment and evaluation of tactical herbicides was described in the previous section.The testing of large volume aerial systems in 1952 and 1953 using Air Force B-29, B-50,and C-119 aircraft, and spraying a mixture of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, proved that militaryaircraft and tactical herbicides could be potentially used in a combat environment. Themission to develop additional tactical herbicides and new delivery technology wasassigned to the US Army Chemical Corps, and specifically to the Crops Division of theBiological Warfare Laboratories (subsequently, the Plant Sciences Laboratories) at FortDetrick, Maryland. The program involved the evaluation of thousands of compounds forherbicidal activity. In addition, the US Army with the active participation of the AirForce and Navy continued engineering development of delivery technology. When theAir Force accomplished prove-out and acceptance testing of the large-capacity (1,000gallons) spray system (known as the MC-1 or Hour-glass Spray System) it wasimmediately sent to Guam, along with 5,000 drums of a concentrated mixture oftechnical butyl esters of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T called “Purple”, although neither the SpraySystems or the herbicides were used. After the close of the Korean Conflict, Fort Detrickscientists were involved in 1957 with tests showing the herbicidal activity of cacodylicacid (an organic arsenical) on rice and grasses, and with the evaluation of aerialapplication tests with mixtures of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T at Fort Ritchie, Maryland (1956),Dugway, Utah (1959), and Fort Drum, New York (1959) (see Leaflets 6, 7, and 8).In early 1961, the US military initiated Project AGILE, a project designed to providetechnical information on the chemical means of controlling vegetation that could beapplied to military operations in South Vietnam. The tactical problem to which researchwas directed was the development of chemicals that could rapidly control a broad rangeof botanical species. Once again the Department of the Army’s Plant SciencesLaboratories at Fort Detrick, Maryland was given the responsibility, but this time the goalwas to determine the technical feasibility of defoliating jungle vegetation in SouthVietnam.7