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  3. Agent Orange Resources

Resource Guide Pages

Archive Resources on Agent Orange

About Agent Orange

Agent Orange received its name from its distinctive packaging, an orange striped 55 gallon drum. It works as a defoliant killing broad leafed plants and weeds by inducing rapid and uncontrolled growth, causing the plants to loose all of their leaves.

The United States government used Agent Orange in Vietnam to reduce the amount of vegetation in heavy combat zones and around military bases in an effort to reduce the effectiveness of the North Vietnamese guerilla forces. During Operation Ranch Hand the U. S. Air Force sprayed 19 million gallons of Agent Orange in Vietnam from 1961 - 1971.

In later years, researchers found that the Dioxin in Agent Orange and most of the other Rainbow Herbicides used in Vietnam can cause numerous health problems including cancer, birth defects and other diseases; making Agent Orange one of the most prominent issues for Vietnam Veterans today.

About This Subject Guide

This subject guide is meant to give the user a broad overview of the collections most relevant to Agent Orange research, more collections may be available inside the Virtual Vietnam Archive. Click on the links to the moving images, photographs or oral histories to view the material through the subject guide. Clicking on a finding aid will send you to a document describing an entire collection with either a box or folder level listing of the collection's contents. The finding aid will give you a general idea of what is contained in the collection.

Many of our documents are scanned and available online. You can find the individual documents by searching the virtual archive. Below is a list of keyword combinations that you can use in the Advanced Search module to find individual documents. http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/.

Agent Orange Product Liability Litigation Collection (2652)

The Agent Orange Product Liability Litigation Collection consists of material used in defense of the chemical companies who produced Agent Orange for the US Government during the Vietnam War. This landmark class action suit (1979-1984) brought together many of the individual suits filed by Vietnam veterans against these chemical companies claiming that their product caused numerous health issues for themselves and their children. The suit was settled on the day the trial was to begin in May 1984, and a $180 million settlement was awarded to the Vietnam veterans in the class action. This collection, held by the Sam Johnson Vietnam Archive, contains 550 linear feet of expert witness testimony, plaintiff depositions, scientific studies, trial records, military documents outlining the usage of Agent Orange during the war, copies of case law relevant to the class action suit, plus other documentation of Agent Orange, Dioxin, and the health issues suffered by veterans after the war. The VNCA received a generous grant from the National Endowment of the Humanities to process these records and open them to the public and after 3 and a half years, the material is now open for research at our facility in Lubbock Texas.
https://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/virtualarchive/items.php?item=26520000000

Keywords (use Agent Orange and one of the following keywords)

  • Diabetes
  • Chloracne
  • Hodgkin's disease
  • Multiple myeloma
  • Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
  • Peripheral neuropathy
  • Porphyria cutanea tarda
  • Prostate cancer
  • Soft-tissue sarcoma
  • Lung Cancer
  • Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
  • Schwannomas
  • Spina Bifida
  • Operation Ranch Hand
  • Rainbow Herbicides
  • Agent White
  • Agent Blue
  • Dioxin

Useful Websites

Agent Orange Resources by Media Type