Background on the Herbicides
Between 1961 and 1971, nearly twenty million of gallons of chemical herbicides were used in the Republic of Vietnam (RVN), primarily to defoliate forests and woods and along the shores of inland waterways. The defoliation operations served to improve visibility for fighter aircraft and to limit the ability of enemy forces to use the thick forests for camouflage. Herbicides were also used to destroy rice and other food crops that were thought to be supplying nourishment enemy forces. The US Air Force was in charge of the defoliation mission and carried out most of the spraying operations using the codename Operation Ranch Hand.
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Information on the quantities and periods of use of herbicidal agents used during the Vietnam war.
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Links to PubMed searches for scholarly articles related to each chemical herbicide used in Vietnam.
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Learn about the GIS, which links together data layers on herbicide spray missions, troop locations, contemporary maps and more.
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Toxicity information on the herbicidal agents used during the Vietnam war, including links to NIEHS ChemIDPlus and NCBI PubChem.
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Details and original documentation on the herbicide operation plans that comprised Operation Ranch Hand.
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Movies displaying herbicide spray locations during the Vietnam War using GIS-generated data.
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