Agent Orange

Philip Jones Griffiths, for five years President of "Magnum Photos", created in "Vietnam, Inc" a record of the war there of almost Biblical proportions. No one who has seen it will forget its haunting images. In "Agent Orange" he has added a postscript that is equally unforgettable. In 1960 the United States war machine concluded that an efficient deterrent to the Viet Cong would be the devastation of the crops and forestry that afforded them both succour and cover for their operations. Initial descriptions of the scheme included "Food Denial Program", later adapted to "depriving cover for enemy troops". They gave the idea the name "Operation Hades", but were advised that "Operation Ranch Hand" was a more suitable cognomen for PR purposes. The US had developed a herbicide for the task. It became known as Agent Orange after the colour of the canisters used to distribute it. The planes that carried the canisters had "only we can prevent forests!" as a logo on their fuselages. They were right. It was very effective. Unfortunately some herbicide also contained Dioxin, probably one of the world's deadliest poisons.
In "Agent Orange" Philip Jones Griffiths has photographed the children and grandchildren of the farmers whose faces were lifted to the gentle rain of the contaminated herbicide. Theoretically and scientifically there are no proven connections between the maimed subjects of Griffiths' photographs and the presence of Dioxin in Agent Orange. There are certainly suspicions, sustained by the compensation payments made by the US Government to its war victims.