Customer Reviews

Herbicidal Warfare: The RANCH HAND Project in Vietnam

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Paul Cecil's history of the Ranch Hand Program in Vietnam is invaluable for understanding why the US engaged in herbicidal warfare in the conflict.

The author breifly presents the history of US CW spraying and herbicidal warefare (chemical only), then follows this with a lengthy detail of Vietnam spray operations. The book is invaluable in understanding the tactical challenges of spray operations, and the techniques devised from these experiences. While I enjoyed the book thourghly for the authors wealth of knowledge on aerial spraying, most readers will be disappointed in its lack of development of the personalities involved, and it rather dry context.

Nonetheless, no history of US herbicidal warfare would be complete without reading this book. The author points to the combat effectiveness of herbicidal warfare, the strong demand for it by field commanders, and the mistakes made by analysts at the time that were critical of the program (such as not even looking at the operational field data!).

The author points to the early effectiveness of anti-crop operations, but their eventual failure due to misuse by GVN planners to punish villegers and not allocating moneys for relocation. Also details the failures of the forest burning operations.

The author does describe how Ranch Hand pilots received more than 1,000x the exposure to Agent Orange than troops on the ground, and that they did not have any ill effects decades later (epidemeological study). Also that Agent Orange (or Purple) had to be reapplied on a regular basis to maintain defoliation, as vegetation quickly grew back.