"But the legacy of Agent Orange is not about science or economics. It’s about human decency. Americans created Agent Orange here in a laboratory, shipped it overseas and dumped it with abandon, where it continues to shatter thousands of people’s lives. Denying the reality of the need can only take an unacceptable toll here in the United States."
-Viet Thanh Nguyen, author of “Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War”, 2016
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"First, in the field of chemical warfare, I hereby reaffirm that the United States will never be the first country to use chemical weapons to kill. And I have also extended this renunciation to chemical weapons which incapacitate." |
Four years after Agent Orange was last used, the U.S. proposed a treaty called the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention. Enforced in 1975, this treaty bans "weapons, equipment, or means of delivery to use such agents of toxins for hostile purposes or in armed conflict."
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"Each State Party to this Convention undertakes never in any circumstances to develop, produce, stockpile or otherwise acquire or retain: |
"Each State Party to this Convention undertakes never under any circumstances: |
"Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling, and Use of Chemical Weapons and on Their Destruction", 1994, The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Warfare
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"chemical bullets are just as deadly as lead bullets - they just
take longer to kill."
-Victor John Yannacone Jr., initial lawyer of the Agent Orange Product Liability Litigation, 1984