Agent Orange Impact: see attached pdf for text with photos
From: Vsg <vsg-bounces@mailman11.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of George Black
Sent: Friday, April 16, 2021 5:45 AM
To: Greg Nagle <gnagle2000@gmail.com>
Cc: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vsg] Fwd: Assessing the impact of herbicides on forests in the A Luoi valley
Greg - There were six defoliation flights over Hamburger Hill (Dong Ap Bia), all between January and May 1966. Two of these also crossed into Laos. There were also at least half a dozen more along the valley floor at various times that passed within 1-2 miles of the mountain. Most of these were in 1969-1970 in the months after the battle.
646-361-3931
@georgehsblack
On Fri, Apr 16, 2021 at 6:27 AM Greg Nagle <gnagle2000@gmail.com> wrote:
Oscar,
Yes, some of it or much of it is swidden. But I think also much of it is the result of agricultural fires getting away, Some fires may also have been set to to burn old grass and spur new growth for livestock grazing, David mentioned this as a more common Kinh practice which might account for many of the fires west of Hue(?)
I think if it was mostly swidden it would be a patchier vegetation mosaic since so much older traditional swidden is in dense vegetation with young trees, That is what you more commonly see up in the hills, I can dig out pics of that,
This is the A Luoi base up closer in 1969
A view to the SE with corner of the A Luoi airfield on the far left in 1968, This vegetation mosaic with much remnant forest seems more typical of swidden agriculture, And note all the brown trees from herbicides,
And a view of Hamburger Hill, taken supposedly after the May 1969 battle
Vegetation mosaic is more typical of swidden and of course the impacts of the bombing.
The map I have does not indicate it was sprayed with herbicides but I am not sure (?).|
It is now completely covered in dense forest,
Greg Nagle
PhD Forest and watershed science
Cornell University
Hanoi, Vietnam
On Fri, Apr 16, 2021 at 4:16 PM Oscar Salemink <o.salemink@anthro.ku.dk> wrote:
Dear Greg,
I may get it wrong what you are trying to indicate but, although it’s difficult to make out, some of the “open areas without trees” simply look like swiddens to me. Swiddening was a common agricultural method among many of the highlander groups since times immemorial. Subsequent political/development regimes have attempted to stamp out swiddening, as it was (mostly erroneously) associated with “backwardness”, “laziness”, “wastefulness”, deforestation, state avoidance. These programs were not always successful, let alone beneficial for highlanders.
Regarding colonial histories of forestry, the French scholar Frédéric Thomas published a not very well-known book Histoire du Régime et des Services Forestiers Français en Indochine de 1862 à 1945, published by The Gioi in Hanoi (1999). In 2003 he defended his PhD thesis La forêt mise à nu : essai anthropologique sur la construction d'un objet scientifique tropical : "forêts et bois coloniaux d'Indochine" : 1860-1940http://www.theses.fr/2003EHES0123. I think it can be accessed (for payment) here http://www.diffusiontheses.fr/lang-en/65745-these-de-thomas-frederic.html.
Best regards,
Oscar Salemink
University of Copenhagen
Department of Anthropology
From: Greg Nagle <gnagle2000@gmail.com>
Sent: 16. april 2021 08:24
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Subject: [Vsg] Assessing the impact of herbicides on forests in the A Luoi valley
Known as the Ashau during what the Vietnamese call “the American war”, the valley was some of the most contested terrain in central Vietnam. There were a number of photos taken by US personnel which I was able to find on google, many more than I expected. When looking at environmental history it is too easy to slide into mythology so having solid photo documentation of the forest cover is very useful, but all of this should be taken with a lot of salt.
More pics and figures will be posted further down the thread since there is a 3000kb size limit ,
Photo is from 1969 looking northwest across US airfield at A Luoi. Those open areas without trees were that way before it was ever sprayed with herbicides. I am working on teasing out the actual forest changes which were more complex than I first thought, You had the herbicides combined with centuries of human impacts on the vegetation. I am not sure if the brown areas were burned or sprayed with herbicides.
Much of that open valley bottom and lower side hills now have acacia plantations with smaller areas of rubber.
Much of the area was sprayed with herbicides between 1964 and May 1970. Some of it was sprayed 11 times, with various herbicides including sprayed 5 times with Agent Orange. A So was the site of a fierce battle in 1966 when a US special forces base was attacked and overrun.
What made this so much worse were the barrels of very contaminated agent orange which were ruptured in the attack, leaving poisons behind that still linger 55 years later, The area has been a major focus of scientific studies on the long term contamination of soils, foods and people, .
Hatfield Consultants. Development of Impact Mitigation Strategies Related to the use of Agent Orange Herbicide in the Aluoi Valley, Viet Nam (April 2000)
Based on her analysis of French aerial photos taken in 1952, this researcher was able to depict what the valley south of A Luoi actually looked like with most of it in shrub and bush savannah, with much recently abandoned agricultural land, Forest is dark green. The white transect in the picture is about 4500 m.
Figure by Amélie Robert. At the Heart of the Vietnam War: Herbicides, Napalm and Bulldozers Against the A Lưới Mountains Article in Revue de géographie alpine · May 2016
In 1943 the French published this map which showed the hills just west of Hue mostly with “forets denses pauvres” or poor forest cover which is light green, Further west closer to Lao border it is more yellow or mixed with areas of rich forest. Surprisingly, the high ridge along border with Quang Nam, location of Bach Ma national park, shows it as mixed or poor, More recent maps show much more as “rich’ forest although some areas sprayed with agent orange
Figure is from Pamela McElwee's "Forests are Gold"
Greg Nagle
PhD Forest and watershed science
Cornell University
Hanoi, Vietnam