Using an example where the USA breached the Geneva convention against chemical warfare is not proving whatever your point is.
To answer your question, they justified it at the time as a herbicide to kill the jungle the Vietnamese were using for cover. This was only a cover story however. They clearly knew how dangerous a toxin it was, given the safety protocols they had around the chemical for it’s troops. At best, if it were merely a herbicide, it’s use would still constitute a war crime for destroying civilian and non-combatant food sources.
It’s actually a bit of an International scandal even today that the USA has not formally apologised for its use. They have at least provided limited compensation for their victims in Vietnam with long-term effects of exposure to Agent Orange. Though I’m not certain those programs continue today under their present administration.
To be honest, the USA should apologise for being in Vietnam in the first place. It had no business being there, and nor did Australia.
There has never been a ruling by the UN, ICC, ICJ or whatever about the use of agent orange breaching the Geneva conventions or being a war crime. All legal analysis is post hoc. Today it might be, but it’s irrelevant to this foreign agitators ridiculous claims.
You assert they knew based on nothing but a hope and a dream. Chemical warnings are designed to prevent misuse, and I would love to hear you claim the warnings on the box were “will cause generational harm”. In fact it’s the exact opposite because soldiers were incredibly ignorant of the toxicity of the chemical, a fact veteran advocacy groups have spoken of at length.
They also stopped using agent orange shortly after more information came out about those kinds of harmful effects in 1969, which goes against your claim.
If you think any of this is convincing of the claim “America and ISIS are the same” you’ve got your head in the sand.
Using an example where the USA breached the Geneva convention against chemical warfare is not proving whatever your point is.
To answer your question, they justified it at the time as a herbicide to kill the jungle the Vietnamese were using for cover. This was only a cover story however. They clearly knew how dangerous a toxin it was, given the safety protocols they had around the chemical for it’s troops. At best, if it were merely a herbicide, it’s use would still constitute a war crime for destroying civilian and non-combatant food sources.
It’s actually a bit of an International scandal even today that the USA has not formally apologised for its use. They have at least provided limited compensation for their victims in Vietnam with long-term effects of exposure to Agent Orange. Though I’m not certain those programs continue today under their present administration.
To be honest, the USA should apologise for being in Vietnam in the first place. It had no business being there, and nor did Australia.
There has never been a ruling by the UN, ICC, ICJ or whatever about the use of agent orange breaching the Geneva conventions or being a war crime. All legal analysis is post hoc. Today it might be, but it’s irrelevant to this foreign agitators ridiculous claims.
You assert they knew based on nothing but a hope and a dream. Chemical warnings are designed to prevent misuse, and I would love to hear you claim the warnings on the box were “will cause generational harm”. In fact it’s the exact opposite because soldiers were incredibly ignorant of the toxicity of the chemical, a fact veteran advocacy groups have spoken of at length.
They also stopped using agent orange shortly after more information came out about those kinds of harmful effects in 1969, which goes against your claim.
If you think any of this is convincing of the claim “America and ISIS are the same” you’ve got your head in the sand.