Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Agent Orange

The Failure of Science, Policy and Common Sense

  • Book
  • © 2022

Overview

Authors:
  1. Alvin L. Young

    1. A L Young Consulting Inc, Cheyenne, USA

    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

  • Studies the Agent Orange controversy, which is still an active issue in the United States
  • Assesses health studies on the health of Vietnam veterans and potential birth defects in their children
  • Discusses the policies toward Vietnam veterans by U.S. Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs

Part of the book series: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science (AUST, volume 58)

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this book

Log in via an institution
eBook USD 119.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book USD 159.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Other ways to access

Licence this eBook for your library

Institutional subscriptions

Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxvii
    Download chapter PDF

  2. Introduction

    • Alvin L. Young
    Pages 1-8

  3. Project RANCH HAND: The Men and the Mission

    • Alvin L. Young
    Pages 9-33

  4. Update on History and Science of the Major Components of Agent Orange

    • Alvin L. Young
    Pages 35-46

  5. Update on Picloram and Agent White

    • Alvin L. Young
    Pages 47-60

  6. Update on Cacodylic Acid , The Major Component of Agent Blue

    • Alvin L. Young
    Pages 61-81

  7. Acquisition, Transport, and Disposal of the Drums Used for Tactical Herbicides Sent to South Vietnam

    • Alvin L. Young
    Pages 83-92

  8. The Environmental Fate of the TCDD Associated with Agent Orange

    • Alvin L. Young
    Pages 93-108

  9. Human Exposure to TCDD from Aerial Spraying of Agent Orange

    • Alvin L. Young
    Pages 109-125

  10. Health Studies of Allied Vietnam Veterans

    • Alvin L. Young
    Pages 127-169

  11. Health Studies of Vietnamese Veterans and Civilians

    • Alvin L. Young
    Pages 171-194

  12. Birth Defects: Facts, Fiction, and Propaganda

    • Alvin L. Young
    Pages 195-221

  13. The Media and Agent Orange

    • Alvin L. Young
    Pages 223-237

  14. Failure of Science and Common Sense

    • Alvin L. Young
    Pages 239-259

  15. Failure of Government Policy and Common Sense

    • Alvin L. Young
    Pages 261-284

  16. Back Matter

    Pages 285-293
    Download chapter PDF
Back to top

Keywords

About this book

This book tells the story of Agent Orange, its usage and the policies that surround it. Agent Orange contains a contaminant known as TCDD. It was the most widely used defoliant from 1965 – 1970 and became one of three major tactical herbicides used in Vietnam. More than 45 major health studies were conducted with Vietnam veterans from the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Korea seeking a relationship between veterans’ health and TCDD. Allegations of birth defects in the families of Vietnam veterans and the Vietnamese represented a case study in propaganda and deliberate misinformation by the government of Vietnam. The Policies of the US Government implemented by Congress and the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) identified 17 recognized associated presumptive diseases that failed the tests of “cause and effect” and common sense. This book tells the story of Agent Orange, its usage, the health studies and those policies from a diverse range of perspectives, delving intoscience, statistics, history, policy and ethics. It is of interest to scholars engaged in history, political and social philosophy and ethics.

Authors and Affiliations

  • A L Young Consulting Inc, Cheyenne, USA

    Alvin L. Young

About the author

For more than 50 years, Dr. Alvin L. Young has collected documents, reports, and photographs of the use of Agent Orange and other herbicides used in the Vietnam Conflict. He has published four books and more than 85 peer reviewed publications/editorials/commentaries on the herbicides (and the associated dioxin contaminant) used in Vietnam. He completed his Ph.D. in Herbicide Physiology and Environmental Toxicology at Kansas State University in 1968. He began his Air Force career as a Project Scientist with the United States Air Force in 1968, evaluating both the dissemination characteristics of the Air Force aircraft and the fate of the herbicides used in South Vietnam. 
In his 22 years with the Air Force (obtaining the rank of Colonel), he was involved with all phases of the Agent Orange Controversy, from test and evaluation of equipment to environmental fate and health impacts. 
From 1983-87, Dr. Young was assigned to the Executive Office ofthe President, Washington, D.C., where he provided advice to the White House on the issues of Agent Orange and Dioxins. From 1987-1998, he was a Science Advisor for the United States Department of Agriculture. From 1998 to 2001, he was the Director, Center for Risk Excellence, United States Department of Energy, Argonne, Illinois. His expertise is on the use, and human and environmental risks associated with military herbicides used in South Vietnam, 1962-1971. From January 2002 through December 2005, Dr. Young was a Visiting Professor and Senior Fellow with the Institute for Science and Public Policy at The University of Oklahoma, where he prepared a report for the Department of Defense on the topic: “Agent Orange: Use, Disposition, and Environmental Fate.” That report was subsequently prepared as a book entitled The History, Use, Disposition, and Environmental Fate of Agent Orange and published by Springer in April 2009.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Agent Orange

  • Book Subtitle: The Failure of Science, Policy and Common Sense

  • Authors: Alvin L. Young

  • Series Title: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08187-3

  • Publisher: Springer Cham

  • eBook Packages: History, History (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-031-08186-6Published: 26 July 2022

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-031-08189-7Published: 26 July 2023

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-031-08187-3Published: 25 July 2022

  • Series ISSN: 1871-7381

  • Series E-ISSN: 2215-1958

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXVII, 293

  • Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations

  • Topics: History of Technology, Engineering Ethics, Military and Defence Studies

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Back to top

Search

Navigation