Dating to January 16, 1967, this raw footage shows U.S. Army troops spraying defoliant over the jungle terrain of Vietnam. A card accompanying this footage describes it this way: “Defoliation around Bearcat. A potent spray, dispersed by helicopter, is used to remove foliage from trees and deny Viet Cong camouflage around Bearcat perimeter.” Firebase Bearcat was apparently located near Saigon.

It’s not clear what defoliant was being used in this footage. A common one was Agent Orange, which was a tactical herbicide used by the U.S. military for control of vegetation. It was named for the orange band around the storage barrel. The military sprayed Agent Orange and other tactical herbicides during the Vietnam War as part of its herbicidal warfare program, Operation Ranch Hand, from 1961 to 1971. Agent Orange is a mixture of equal parts of two herbicides, 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D. In addition to its damaging environmental effects, traces of dioxin (mainly TCDD, the most toxic of its type) found in the mixture have caused major health problems for many individuals who were exposed, and their offspring.

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This film is part of the Periscope Film LLC archive, one of the largest historic military, transportation, and aviation stock footage collections in the USA. Entirely film backed, this material is available for licensing in 24p HD, 2k and 4k. For more information visit http://www.PeriscopeFilm.com