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((Short description|Use of substances to destroy crops or other plants))
((Refimprove|date=May 2010))
((Pollution sidebar|War|image=[[File:'Ranch Hand' run.jpg|340px|frameless]]|caption=Defoliant spray run, part of [[Operation Ranch Hand]], during the Vietnam War by UC-123B Provider aircraft))

'''Herbicidal warfare''' is the use of substances primarily designed to destroy the plant-based ecosystem of an area. Although herbicidal warfare use [[chemical substance]]s, its main purpose is to disrupt agricultural food production and/or to destroy plants which provide cover or [[concealment]] to the enemy, not to [[Asphyxia|asphyxiate]] or [[poison]] humans and/or destroy human-made structures. Herbicidal warfare has been forbidden by the [[Environmental Modification Convention]] since 1978, which bans "any technique for changing the composition or structure of the Earth's [[Biota (ecology)|biota]]".<ref>((cite web | url = http://www.un-documents.net/enmod.htm| title = Convention on the Prohibition of Military or Any Other Hostile Use of Environmental Modification Techniques | date = 10 December 1976| publisher = UN))</ref>

==History==
Modern day herbicidal warfare resulted from [[military research]] discoveries of [[plant growth regulators]] in the [[Second World War]], and is therefore a technological advance on the [[scorched earth]] practices by armies throughout history to deprive the enemy of food and cover.

Work on military herbicides began in [[England]] in 1940, and by 1944, the [[United States]] joined in the effort. Even though herbicides are chemicals, due to their mechanism of action (growth regulators), they are often considered a means of [[biological warfare]]. Over 1,000 substances were investigated by the war's end for phytotoxic properties, and the [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] envisioned using herbicides to destroy [[Axis Powers|Axis]] crops. British planners did not believe herbicides were logistically feasible against [[Germany]].

In May 1945, [[USAAF]] [[General (United States)|General]] Victor E. Betrandias advanced a proposal to his superior General [[Henry H. Arnold|Arnold]] to use of [[ammonium thiocyanate]] to reduce [[rice]] crops in [[Japan]] as part of the [[air raids on Japan|bombing raids on their country]]. This was part of larger set of proposed measures to starve the Japanese. The plan calculated that ammonium thiocyanate would not be seen as "[[gas warfare]]" because the substance was not particularly dangerous to humans. On the other hand, the same plan envisaged that if the U.S. were to engage in "gas warfare" against Japan, then [[mustard gas]] would be an even more effective rice crop killer. The [[Joint Target Group]] rejected the plan as tactically unsound, but expressed no moral reservations.<ref name="Chappell1997">((cite book|author=John David Chappell|title=Before the Bomb: How America Approached the End of the Pacific War|year=1997|publisher=University Press of Kentucky|isbn=978-0-8131-7052-7|pages=91–92))</ref>

=== Malaya ===
During the [[Malayan Emergency]] (1948–1960), the [[British Armed Forces|British military]] deployed [[herbicide]]s and [[defoliant]]s in the Malaysian countryside (including crop fields) in order to deprive [[Malayan National Liberation Army]] (MNLA) insurgents of cover, potential sources of food and to flush them out of the jungle. The herbicides and defoliants deployed by the British contained [[2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxyacetic acid|Trioxone]], an ingredient which was also formed part of the chemical composition of the [[Agent Orange]] herbicide used by the [[United States Armed Forces|U.S. military]] during the [[Vietnam War]]. Deployment of herbicides and defoliants served the dual purpose of thinning jungle trails to prevent ambushes and destroying crop fields in regions where the MNLA was active to deprive them of potential sources of food. In the summer of 1952, 500 hectares were sprayed with 90,000 liters of Trioxone from [[fire engine]]s; the British found it difficult to operate the machinery in jungle conditions while wearing full protective gear. Herbicides and defoliants were also sprayed from [[Royal Air Force]] (RAF) aircraft.<ref name="MAY">((cite book |title=The Global Politics of Pesticides: Forging Consensus from Conflicting Interests |page=61 |author=Bruce Cumings |year=1998 |publisher=[[Earthscan]]))</ref>

Historical records of DOW chemical show that "Super Agent Orange", also called DOW Herbicide M-3393, was Agent Orange that was mixed with [[picloram]]. Super Orange was known to have been tested by representatives from [[Fort Detrick]] and DOW chemical in Texas, Puerto Rico, and Hawaii and later in Malaysia in a cooperative project with the International Rubber Research Institute.<ref>"Operational Evaluation of Super-Orange" via National Security Archives at George Washington University. retrieved 10-24-12</ref>

Discussions in the British government centered on avoiding the thorny issue of whether herbicidal warfare in Malaya was in violation of the spirit of the 1925 [[Geneva Protocol]], which only prohibited chemical warfare among signatory states in international armed conflicts. The British were keen to avoid accusations like the [[allegations of biological warfare in the Korean War]] leveled against the United States. The British government found that the simplest solution was to deny that a conflict was going on in Malaya. They declared the insurgency to be an internal security matter; thus, the use of herbicidal agents was a matter of police action, much like the use of [[CS gas]] for riot control.<ref name="MAY"/>

Many Commonwealth personnel who handled herbicides and defoliants during, and in the decades after, the conflict suffered from serious exposure to dioxin, which also led to [[soil erosion]] in areas of Malaysia. Roughly 10,000 civilians and insurgents in Malaysia also suffered from the effects of the defoliant, though many historians argue the true number was higher given that herbicides and defoliants were used on a large scale in the Malayan Emergency; the British government manipulated data and kept its deployment of herbicidal warfare secret in fear of a diplomatic backlash.<ref>((cite book |title=Pesticide Dilemma in the Third World: A Case Study of Malaysia |pages=23 |publisher=Phoenix Press |year=1984))</ref><ref>((cite book |title=Dioxins and Health |pages=145–160 |author=Arnold Schecter, Thomas A. Gasiewicz |date=4 July 2003))</ref><ref>((cite book |title=Chemical and Biological Warfare: A Reference Handbook |pages=178–180 |author=Albert J. Mauroni |date=July 2003))</ref>

===Vietnam War===
[[File:Two Vietnameses pose in front of the billboard.jpg|thumb|Kan Lay, 55 years old, and her son, Ke Van Bec, 14 years old, physically and mentally disabled, pose in front of the billboard denouncing the [[Operation Ranch Hand]].]]
The [[United States]] used herbicides in [[Southeast Asia]] during the [[Vietnam War]]. Success with [[Project AGILE]] field tests with herbicides in South Vietnam in 1961 and inspiration by the British use of herbicides and defoliants during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s led to the formal herbicidal program [[Operation Trail Dust]] (1961–1971). [[Operation Ranch Hand]], a [[U.S. Air Force]] program to use [[C-123K]] aircraft to spray herbicides over large areas, was one of many programs under Trail Dust. The aircrews charged with spraying the defoliant used a sardonic motto-"Only you can prevent forests"-a shortening of the [[U.S. Forest Service]]s famous warning to the general public "Only you can prevent forest fires". The United States and its allies officially claims that herbicidal and [[incendiary device|incendiary]] agents like [[napalm]] fall outside the definition of "chemical weapons" and that Britain set the precedent by using them during the Malayan Emergency. 

Ranch Hand started as a limited program of defoliation of border areas, security perimeters, and crop destruction. As the conflict continued, the anti-crop mission took on more prominence, and (along with other agents) defoliants became used to compel civilians to leave [[Viet Cong]]-controlled territories for government-controlled areas. It was also used experimentally for large area forest burning operations that failed to produce the desired results.

[[File:GVN Herbicide.png|thumb|Map of herbicide usage during the Vietnam war.]]

Defoliation was judged in 1963 as improving visibility in jungles by 30–75% horizontally, and 40–80% vertically. Improvements in delivery systems by 1968 increased this to 50–70% horizontally, and 60–90% vertically. Ranch Hand pilots were the first to make an accurate 1:125,000 scale map of the [[Ho Chi Minh trail]] south of [[Tchepone]], [[Laos]] by defoliating swaths perpendicular to the trail every half mile or so.

Use of herbicides in Vietnam caused a shortage of commercial pesticides in mid-1966 when the [[United States Department of Defense|Defense Department]] had to use powers under the [[Defense Production Act of 1950]] to secure supplies.

The concentration of herbicides sprayed in Operation Ranch Hand was more than an order of magnitude greater than that in domestic use. Approximately 10% of the land surface of South Vietnam was sprayed—about 17,000 square kilometers. About 85% of the spraying was for defoliation and about 15% was for crop destruction.<ref name="WheelisRózsa2009-233">((cite book|author1=Mark Wheelis|author2=Lajos Rózsa|title=Deadly Cultures: Biological Weapons since 1945|year=2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-04513-2|page=223))</ref>

=== War on drugs in South America and Afghanistan ===
((further|Plan Colombia#Fumigation strategy and criticisms))

==Types of herbicides==
((generalize|section|date=June 2013))
((Refimprove|section|date=October 2016))
((Main|Rainbow herbicides))
The United States had technical military symbols for herbicides that have since been replaced by the more common color code names derived from the banding on shipping drums. The US further distinguished between '''tactical herbicides''', which were to be used in combat operations and commercial herbicides, which used in and around military bases, etc.<ref>((citation|doi=10.1007/978-0-387-87486-9_2|chapter=A History of the Development and Procurement of Tactical Herbicides|title=The History, Use, Disposition and Environmental Fate of Agent Orange|pages=23–45|year=2009|last1=Young|first1=Alvin L.|isbn=978-0-387-87485-2))</ref>

<!-- format as graph //
AGENT          COMPOSITION                         LBS/GAL              USE

PURPLE         n-butyl esters of 2,4-D             4.2                   145,000 gallons used between 1962-1965 as a general defoliant at 1 - 3 lbs/acre.
               n-butyl esters of 2,4,5-T           2.2
               isobutyl esters of 2,4,5-T          1.5

ORANGE         n-butyl esters of 2,4-D             49.49                 10,646,000 gallons used in Vietnam between 1965–1970 as a general defoliant at 10–65 lbs/acre.
               n-butyl esters of 2,4,5-T           48.75

ORANGE II      n-butyl esters of 2,4,-D            50%                   950,000 gallons delivered, but not believed used in Vietnam.
               isoctyl esters of 2,4,5-T           50%

PINK          n-butyl esters of 2,4,5-T            60%                   122,792 gallons used in Vietnam between 1962–1965 by GVN forces as a general defoliant.
              isobutyl esters of 2,4,5-T           40%

GREEN         n-butyl esters of 2,4,5-T            8.16                  8,208 gallons used in Vietnam between 1962–1965 by GVN forces as a general defoliant.

BLUE          Sodium cacodylate                    27.7%                 Used to attack cereals and grain crops at an application rate of 33 lbs/acre.
              cacodylic acid                        4.8%
              water & sodium chloride              67.5%

WHITE         tri isoproparolamine salt of Picloram 0.54                 Used at 9.6 lbs/acre for long-term control of braodleaf plants.
              tri isoproparolamine salts of 2,4-D   2.0
              water & wetting agent                 7.06
-->
In 1966 the [[United States Defense Department]] claimed that herbicides used in Vietnam were not harmful to people or the environment. In 1972 it was advised that a known impurity precluded the use of these herbicides in Vietnam and all remaining stocks should be returned home. In 1977 the [[United States Air Force]] destroyed its stocks of [[Agent Orange]] 200 miles west of [[Johnston Island]] on the incinerator ship [[M/T Vulcanus]]. The impurity, [[2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin]] (TCDD) was a suspected [[carcinogen]] that may have affected the health of over 17,000 [[United States]] servicemen, 4,000 [[Australia]]ns, 1,700 [[New Zealand]]ers, [[Korean people|Koreans]], countless [[Vietnamese people|Vietnamese]] soldiers and civilians, and with over 40,000 children of veterans possibly suffering birth defects from herbicidal warfare.

Decades later the lingering problem of herbicidal warfare remains as a dominant issue of [[United States-Vietnam relations]]. In 2003, a coalition of Vietnamese survivors and long-term victims of Agent Orange [[Lawsuit|sued]] a number of American-based and multinational chemical corporations for damages related to the manufacture and use of the chemical. A federal judge rejected the suit, claiming that the plaintiff's claim of direct responsibility was invalid.

==See also==
* [[E14 munition]]
* [[E77 balloon bomb]]
* [[Enterotoxin]]
* [[M115 bomb]]
* [[Mycotoxin]]
* [[United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories]]
* [[War on drugs#Aerial herbicide application]]

==References==
((Reflist))

==Further reading==
*((cite journal |first=Edwin A. |last=Martini |title=Hearts, Minds, and Herbicides: The Politics of the Chemical War in Vietnam |journal=Diplomatic History |year=2013 |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=58–84 |doi=10.1093/dh/dhs003 ))
*((cite book |chapter=Herbicides in Warfare: The Case of Indochina |first=A. H. |last=Westing |title=Ecotoxicology and Climate |editor-first=P. |editor-last=Bourdeau |year=1989 |chapter-url=http://globalecology.stanford.edu/SCOPE/SCOPE_38/SCOPE_38_5.6_Westing_337-358.pdf |publisher=Stanford University, Department of Global Ecology |display-editors=etal))

((Pollution))

((Use dmy dates|date=August 2019))

((DEFAULTSORT:Herbicidal Warfare))
[[Category:Herbicides]]
[[Category:Military tactics]]
[[Category:Chemical warfare]]
[[Category:Environmental impact of war]]

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