Gibson’s commanders “did tell us what we were spraying, and as infantry soldiers we thought it was a good thing. It done the job. We could see what it was doing, and it was making it easier for us. But they didn’t tell us what the outcome would be, the health problems it could cause. We were told that they were going to defoliate, and we thought this was the best thing that they’d ever come up with. And we used to laugh about it; you know, we thought it would be a good idea if they defoliated the whole of South Vietnam. It would be kind of like fightin’ in the desert.
“They did issue us gas masks that first day, but we couldn’t breathe in them because of the humidity. And I was an infantry soldier just come back from three days of ambushes, and we were just picked out at random to use the stuff. We know now that it was nothing more than experimental. We’ve got documents on the scientist who was controlling the spraying. He was sent there by the Australian Department of Defense to experiment with various chemicals, 2,4,5-T, 2,4-D, and others. But the fellows who were picking us out at the time to do this work were infantry sergeants, and they knew as much about chemicals as I did, and that was damn nothing. So we told the sergeant after that first day that we couldn’t breathe using this stuff, and he said, ‘I’ll check on it tonight for you,’ and the next day he said, ‘Don’t worry, leave the gas masks and everything off So we used to get in back there and spray this stuff through the barbed wire, and it would come back on us. And your nose would start to bleed, your lips would all get blisters on them, your mucous membranes would break down, and he, the scientist in charge, has documented it all.”
Like their American counterparts in Vietnam, Australian soldiers had been told very little, if anything, about the health effects of long-term exposure to herbicides. According to an Australian army handout, “Instructions for Spraying Herbicides,” the spray was not “toxic to humans when dispersed as a spray on vegetation,” but “casualties can be caused by spillage of the chemical concentrates on the skin and clothes by the spray. Therefore protective clothing and equipment is worn, and simple safety precautions are to be followed.” Side effects from weedicides and soil sterilants are:
a. Blistering of the skin.
b. Toenails dropping off.
c. Systematic poisoning with fatal results from continued absorption, inhalation, or swallowing of the spray or any of the concentrates.
d. Breakdown of mucous membrane, e.g., nosebleeds, red eyes, mouth ulceration.
But Graham Bell, Queensland president of the Vietnam Veterans Action Association recalls that members of his unit were told that they had absolutely nothing to worry about. “In my unit we were told the chemicals were harmless to humans and animals, that they did no permanent damage to the environment, and that the major disadvantage was that when regrowth occurred (a few weeks after spraying) it would be much more vigorous—just like giving the vegetation a burst of fertilizer. Troops of another unit, 5 R.A.R., were drenched with chemicals sprayed by American aircraft; they were told, ‘It won’t even hurt dumb animals.’”1
Had Australian military personnel in charge of defoliation efforts consulted the US Army on herbicides on human health, they would have read that Agent Orange was “relatively nontoxic to man and animals. No injuries have been reported to personnel exposed to aircraft spray. Personnel subject to splashes from handling the agent need not be alarmed, but should shower and change clothes at a convenient opportunity.”
According to the American manual Agent Blue was also “relatively” harmless. “Normal sanitary conditions should be followed when handling Blue. Although it contains a form of arsenic, Blue is relatively nontoxic. It should not be taken internally, however. Any material that gets on the hands, face, or other parts of the body should be washed off at the first opportunity. Clothes that become wet with a solution of Blue should be washed afterwards…”
Neither the American nor the Australian military explain how grunts in the field might be able to shower or change their clothes immediately after exposure to toxic chemicals, or avoid eating food or drinking water contaminated with arsenic[6] or dioxin.
Shortly after he was assigned to spray herbicides, Gibson, his face covered with a burning rash, entered Nui Dat hospital complaining of severe gastroenteritis (an inflammation of the stomach and intestines) and suffering from high temperatures. The doctors who examined him were bewildered, concluding, just as American doctors examining personnel with similar symptoms in other regions of Vietnam did, that their patient was suffering from overexposure to the heat. Entering the hospital for a second time, Gibson was transferred to Vung Tau, where he was examined by nine doctors, all of whom seemed mystified by his symptoms.
“I was really concerned because I just couldn’t walk. The whole of my body, all over my groin and everywhere, was covered with a rash. But it was weeping and everything was just short of falling off. And I said to these guys, ‘What the bloody hell have I got?’ And they said, ‘Don’t worry, don’t worry, we think we know what it is. We think we can …’ But I says, ‘Yeah, you think you can what?’ And they said, ‘Oh, just take it easy, mate, we can fix you up.’ But hell, when you’ve got nine doctors looking at you and they don’t know, and when they come back with some younger doctors and start pointin’ and lookin’, it makes you a little bit worried. And still to this day the VA isn’t able to tell me what is was, or is.”
Draining his glass, Wares grimaces and with mincing sarcasm announces, “Why, it was the heat, mate, don’t you know that? The heat of course. We accepted that explanation at the time because that was all they ever told us, all we ever heard. It’s the tropics, boys, that’s what it is. And that, we now know, is just so much bullshit. Because people here in Queensland live in the tropics, and do they all run around with bloody skin diseases? We accepted the explanation at the time that our rashes were due to the heat, but we don’t believe a bloody word of it anymore. And I can tell you this. Never, never did they tell us anything about herbicide spraying, or about putting on any extra clothing or taking precautions against the spray. In fact at the time I wouldn’t have known what the word ‘defoliant’ meant, and that’s a fact, mate. I just wouldn’t have known. Bob Gibson of course knew something more because he actually sprayed, but the average serviceman, the average Australian, wouldn’t have had a clue.”
Gibson nods his head in sad agreement. Since his return from Phuoc Tuy Province he has suffered from skin rashes, insomnia, violent rages, and other problems symptomatic of dioxin exposure. His ability to work impaired by physical and emotional conditions for which he could find no cure, Gibson applied to the Australian Repatriation Commission for disability payments. But the commission, using language that might easily have been excerpted from an American VA form letter, rejected his request. About Gibson the commission’s psychiatrist wrote: “In this particular case, the patient is a thirty-two-year-old man who has a mild anxiety state. He sets himself up as a martyr and has suffered basically at his own hand by not allowing the memories of Vietnam and their associated emotions to fade with time. His present condition is due to his basic inherited personality pattern and his wish for martyrdom.”
6
By the war’s end, Operation Ranch Hand had sprayed 1,933,699 pounds of arsenic on the Vietnamese countryside.