Vietnam: The Secret Agent

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

A documentary film with the title Vietnam: The Secret Agent. It consists of a single reel of color 16mm polyester film with bilateral variable-area optical sound. By using archival footage of the Vietnam war, interviews with troops, scientists, doctors and archival footage from NBC and ABC television, the film shows the effects of the chemical herbicide dubbed Agent Orange (2, 4, 5-T) that was used as a defoliant over much of Vietnam's forests, killing enemy food supply, and damaging the domestic agricultural industry. The documentary also shows some of the resultant court proceedings; birth defects believed to be the effect of exposure to Agent Orange; veterans describing suffering from diseases such as chloracne; the psychological distress of the veterans; criticisms of the Veterans Affairs and United States government; as well as the hunger strike veterans engaged in.

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