Death Followed Us Home: Rainbow Herbicides of the Vietnam War

This 2025 documentary examines the devastating legacy of the Rainbow Herbicides, a series of chemical defoliants including Agent Orange, Agent White, Agent Purple, Agent Pink, Agent Green, and Agent Blue, deployed by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War from 1962 to 1971 as part of Operation Ranch Hand. Inspired by British tactics in the Malayan Emergency, over 19 million gallons were sprayed across Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia to strip jungle cover from enemy forces and destroy crops, leading to widespread ecological destruction, famine, and long-term health crises. The film details the herbicides' composition—mixtures of phenoxy herbicides like 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T contaminated with highly toxic dioxin TCDD—and their role in exposing an estimated 4.8 million Vietnamese to severe conditions such as cancers, birth defects, and neurological disorders, alongside 400,000 deaths attributed by Vietnamese reports. It incorporates veteran testimonies, scientific analyses, archival footage of spraying missions from bases like Bien Hoa, and discussions of U.S. government underreporting by nearly 2.5 million gallons, as well as ongoing lawsuits against manufacturers and compensation efforts for affected U.S. servicemen through the VA's presumptive list of over a dozen dioxin-linked illnesses, highlighting persistent soil and water contamination and calls for environmental remediation.