Nowhere to hide: the use of chemical agents during the Vietnam War

Abstract

In what way has the impermissibility of chemical weapons affected the permissibility of chemical defoliants and incendiaries, namely Agent Orange and napalm? These two chemical agents were heavily used throughout the Vietnam War under three separate US administrations. Their novelty and effectiveness made them an important tool in US military operations in the region. During the Johnson and Nixon administrations, however, the weapons came under question and were ultimately re-evaluated before their use was restricted, but there is debate about what caused this shift in policy. The goal of this article is to investigate the forces that led to that restriction and to determine the role the chemical-weapons taboo may have played in this re-evaluated status. Thus, we are testing whether asocial factors such as deterrence and utility or social factors such as norms relating to chemical-weapons use and social-feedback mechanisms caused this policy shift. We conclude that social factors resulting from wartime experience—especially feedback from domestic, international, and epistemic communities—most influenced the status of Agent Orange and napalm.