It took many veterans developing chloracne and cancer and many civilians giving birth to defective children for the population to start protesting the chemical weapon and the government finally phasing out its use.
… except Agent Orange doesn’t cause cancer that quickly, and the government phased out its use in response to stateside scientific studies with animal experiments, not veteran outcry, which largely didn’t begin until after the Vietnam War as a whole was over and the long-term effects of exposure to Agent Orange began to manifest in veterans.
Operation Ranch Hand lasted almost 10 years. Chloracne and pregnancies don’t take that long. I don’t have sources about the cancers*, but seems entirely possible.
*edit: about how long their onset takes. The one journalistic source I had listed cancers among the reasons for protests.
US troop presence was minimal until '65, and even then, most the US troops exposed would not have immediately gone on to impregnate someone in the States (who, thus, the US government might bother paying attention to), considering multi-year tours were and are the norm for military deployment. Use of Agent Orange was ended in '71.
… except Agent Orange doesn’t cause cancer that quickly, and the government phased out its use in response to stateside scientific studies with animal experiments, not veteran outcry, which largely didn’t begin until after the Vietnam War as a whole was over and the long-term effects of exposure to Agent Orange began to manifest in veterans.
Operation Ranch Hand lasted almost 10 years. Chloracne and pregnancies don’t take that long. I don’t have sources about the cancers*, but seems entirely possible.
*edit: about how long their onset takes. The one journalistic source I had listed cancers among the reasons for protests.
US troop presence was minimal until '65, and even then, most the US troops exposed would not have immediately gone on to impregnate someone in the States (who, thus, the US government might bother paying attention to), considering multi-year tours were and are the norm for military deployment. Use of Agent Orange was ended in '71.