document_title: Call Me by Your Name (film)

question_text: where is call me by your name opening

question_tokens: where is call me by your name opening

text: Call Me by Your Name (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: Elio, a seventeen-year-old Jewish American-Italian boy, lives in the northern Italian countryside with his parents. His father, a professor of archaeology, invites a 24-year-old Jewish American graduate student, Oliver, to live with his family during the summer of 1983 and help with his academic paperwork. Elio, an introspective bibliophile and musical prodigy, finds little in common with Oliver's carefree and exuberant personality. Elio also resents vacating his bedroom for the duration of Oliver's stay. Elio spends much of the summer reading books and hanging out with his girlfriend, Marzia, while Oliver is attracted to one of the local girls, much to Elio's chagrin.

text: Elio and Oliver begin to spend time with each other, and a seductive courtship emerges—they swim together, go for long walks in the town, and accompany Elio's father on an archaeological trip. Although Elio begins a sexual relationship with Marzia and brags about it in front of Oliver to gauge his reaction, he increasingly finds himself attracted to Oliver. He sneaks into Oliver's room to smell his bathing suit and thinks about him while masturbating. During a trip to the post office, Elio subtly confesses his feelings to Oliver, who gently tells him that he should not act on them. Later that day, Elio and Oliver kiss, though Oliver is reluctant to go further. The pair subsequently grow distant during the next few days.

text: In response to a note from Elio, Oliver leaves a note on Elio's desk telling Elio to meet him at midnight. Elio spends the day with Marzia, all the while longing to see Oliver. Finally, at midnight, he approaches Oliver on the patio. The two make love for the first time. They grow closer over the next few days, having sex frequently while keeping their relationship secret. In bed, Oliver tells Elio, "Call me by your name and I'll call you by mine". They become more intimate both physically and emotionally. On one occasion, Elio ejaculates into a peach that he has split open, and when Oliver discovers it, he tries to take a bite of the peach in front of a humiliated Elio, who begs him not to. Completely smitten with Oliver by this point, Elio starts avoiding Marzia.

text: With the end of Oliver's stay imminent, the couple find themselves overcome by uncertainty and longing. Elio's parents, conscious of the bond between the two, recommend they take a trip to Bergamo together before Oliver goes back to America. They spend three romantic days together, after which Oliver leaves, and a heartbroken Elio returns home. He encounters a sympathetic Marzia, who still wants to be his friend, and his father, seeing how forlorn his son is, tells him that he was aware of Elio's affair with Oliver. He confesses to having had his own love affair with a male friend in his youth, and urges Elio to find pleasure in the grief, since true love of the kind Elio and Oliver shared is rare.

text: During Hanukkah, Elio receives a phone call from Oliver, who tells Elio and his family that he is engaged to be married to a woman. Oliver tells Elio that he remembers everything as they call each other by their names a final time. After the phone call, a pained Elio sits by the fireplace. A parade of emotions crosses his face as his parents and the house staff prepare a holiday dinner.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Timothée Chalamet as Elio Perlman
Armie Hammer as Oliver
Michael Stuhlbarg as Mr. Perlman[5]
Amira Casar as Annella Perlman
Esther Garrel as Marzia
Victoire Du Bois as Chiara
Vanda Capriolo as Mafalda
Antonio Rimoldi as Anchise
Elena Bucci as Bambi
Marco Sgrosso as Nico
André Aciman as Mounir
Peter Spears as Isaac

text: Production[edit]

text: Development[edit]

text: After seeing an early galley of André Aciman's debut novel Call Me by Your Name in 2007, American producers Peter Spears and Howard Rosenman bought the screen rights to it before it was published.[6] Before developing it into a film, the two invited their friend James Ivory to work as an executive producer on the adaptation, which he accepted.[7] Spears and Rosenman read the book independently and produced it in 2008.[8] They soon found themselves in development hell:[9] they met with three different sets of directors and writers—including Gabriele Muccino, Ferzan Özpetek and Sam Taylor-Johnson[10]—but could not find anyone who would commit to the project.[6][11] Scheduling around the need to shoot in Italy during the summer also proved difficult.[6][11]

text: The producers reached out to Luca Guadagnino and lined him up as their first choice to direct, but he declined, citing a busy schedule.[8][12] Living in northern Italy, he was first hired as a location consultant instead,[13][14] to help "put the movie together from the Italian side."[15] Guadagnino later suggested that he co-direct the film with Ivory—without any contractual agreement yet in place.[9][15] Ivory accepted the offer,[9] and spent between six and nine months in 2014 working on the screenplay.[7][16] Guadagnino, who has described the novel as "a Proustian book about remembering the past and indulging in the melancholy of lost things,"[17] wrote the adaptation with Ivory, while also collaborating with Walter Fasano to "really fine-tune it".[15][18] It took place at Ivory's house, Guadagnino's kitchen table in Crema, and sometimes in New York.[19] Ivory hardly met the director during the process, as Guadagnino was busy making A Bigger Splash (2015).[16]

text: Completed in late 2015 and early 2016,[16] the screenplay was approved by Aciman, who commended the adaptation as "direct, […] real and persuasive." He added, "as the writer I found myself saying, 'Wow, they've done better than the book'".[6] The completed screenplay was vital in securing funding for the film's production.[7][9] Among the financiers were the production companies La Cinéfacture (France); Frenesy Film Company (Italy, owned by Guadagnino); M.Y.R.A. Entertainment (United States); RT Features (Brazil), and Water's End Productions (United States)—along with the support of the Italian Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism.[18][20][21] During negotiations, the production budget was reduced from $12 million to $3.5 million.[22][21]

text: In 2016, Ivory stepped down from directing to avoid conflicts, leaving Guadagnino to direct the film alone.[15][12] According to Ivory, financiers from Memento Films International didn't want to have two directors involved in the project, as they "thought it would be awkward [...] It might take longer, it would look terrible if we got in fights on the set, and so on."[7][16] Guadagnino has said that Ivory's version would have likely been "a much more costly [and] different film"—one which, in fact, could not have been made, because of "market realities".[13][14] Ivory became the solely credited screenwriter,[23] and subsequently sold the rights to the screenplay to Guadagnino's company.[7][16] It marks Ivory's first produced screenplay since Le Divorce (2003), and the only narrative feature that he has only written, not directed.[23] Despite that, Ivory was "very much involved" with other aspects of the production.[23] Guadagnino chose to dedicate the film to Bill Paxton—a friend of the director, Spears and his husband, Brian Swardstrom—after his death in February 2017.[24]

text: Adaptation[edit]

text: Call Me by Your Name is the final installment in Guadagnino's thematic Desire trilogy, following I Am Love (2009) and A Bigger Splash (2015).[25][12] The film represents a departure from his previous work, as on it he took a "non-aggressive" and simple approach; he has said this is "the most calm" movie he has made.[15][26] Despite being a literary adaptation, many scenes in the film play out wordlessly. "Words are part of what's going on, but it's not necessarily what's going on underneath. I think this film celebrates the underneath," he said.[8] Guadagnino considers the film an "homage to fathers," referring both to his own father and to four filmmakers who have inspired him—Jean Renoir, Jacques Rivette, Éric Rohmer, and Bernardo Bertolucci.[27]

text: Guadagnino has described Call Me By Your Name as a family-oriented film for the purpose of "transmission of knowledge and hope that people of different generations come to see the film together."[18] He never saw it as a "gay" movie, but rather calls it a film about the "beauty of the newborn idea of desire, unbiased and uncynical," and reflecting his motto of living "with a sense of joie de vivre",[26][15] in which "we should always be very earnest with one's feelings, instead of hiding them or shielding ourselves".[25] The director attempted to avoid the flaws he had seen in most coming-of-age films, in which growth is often portrayed as a result of resolving certain preconceived dilemmas—such as having to choose between two lovers.[14] He also wanted the story to follow two people in the moment, rather than focus on an antagonist or a tragedy,[26] a specific approach inspired by À Nos Amours (1983), directed by Maurice Pialat.[14][17] As someone who considers sex in film a representation of the characters' behavior and identity,[28] Guadagnino was not interested in including explicit sex scenes in the film, in order to keep the tone as planned, saying, "I wanted the audience to completely rely on the emotional travel of these people and feel first love [...] It was important to me to create this powerful universality, because the whole idea of the movie is that the other person makes you beautiful—enlightens you, elevates you."[29]

text: The film differs from its source material in a number of ways. While the novel serves as a memory-piece from Elio's perspective, the filmmakers chose to set the movie entirely in the present timeline, a "much more efficient" solution, to help the audience understand the characters and "reflect the essence of the book."[8][17] The setting was changed from Bordighera to the countryside of Crema, Lombardy, where Guadagnino lives.[8][30] He decided to push up the original setting from 1987 to 1983—which he explained was a year, "in Italy at least, when everything that was great about the '70s is definitely shut down", and one in which the characters "are in a way untouched by the corruption of the '80s—in the U.S., Reagan, and in the UK, Thatcher".[19][31] Mr. Perlman's profession was refined by Ivory from a classics scholar to "an art historian/archeologist type."[8][30]

text: Guadagnino was tempted to remove the scene from the novel in which Elio masturbates into a pitted peach, as he thought it was a metaphor for "sexual impulses and energy", and that it was too explicit.[6][32] Timothée Chalamet was also nervous about the scene,[33] describing it as the key to illuminating the character's "overabundant sexual energy".[8] Despite their reservations, Guadagnino and Chalamet each tested the method by themselves, and both agreed that it worked, so the scene stayed in the film.[34] A scene featuring Elio and Oliver's "enthusiastic" dancing to The Psychedelic Furs' "Love My Way" in a small bar is not drawn from the book, but inspired by the time Guadagnino danced by himself in a bedroom when he was young.[6][35]

text: In revising Ivory's draft of the script, Guadagnino removed the voice-over narration and a considerable amount of nudity.[13][17] The director did not like the idea of having the main character tell the story retrospectively, stating that "it kills the surprise".[17] Toward the end of the novel, the two protagonists go off on a trip to Rome together, which lasts an entire chapter with new characters in multiple locations.[16][23] Because of the limited budget, Ivory and the producers came up with several variations, including the idea to have "everyone else leave and they are alone in the house"; and changed into "another kind of a little trip", where they spend "some time together away from the house".[16] In his original script, Ivory depicted Elio in the final scene when he was decorating a Christmas tree with candles in his family's home.[23] Ivory also had to cut down Mr. Perlman's speech, which was longer in the novel, but was committed to keeping it in the script.[36] He described the scene where Elio conveys his feelings to Oliver as one of the most important moments, capturing the "euphoric passion and nervousness" of their first love.[37]

text: Casting[edit]

text: In 2015, Shia LaBeouf and Greta Scacchi were reportedly set to be cast in the film.[38] In September 2016, Ivory confirmed that LaBeouf and Scacchi were no longer involved in the project. According to Ivory, LaBeouf had gone to New York City to do a reading for the film, but the production company later felt he was unsuitable due to his "various troubles"; although Ivory thought the two "had good scenes together" and could have made it into the film, the company disagreed.[39]

text: After seeing Armie Hammer's performance in The Social Network (2010), Guadagnino "fell in love" with him and cultivated his passion for Hammer and the movies he made afterwards.[15][34] The director found him to be a "sophisticated actor, with a great range" and had him in mind for the role of Oliver.[15] Hammer, who had expressed interest in Guadagnino's A Bigger Splash, met with the director years before the film went into production.[40][28] When the actor got the script, he almost turned down the role because of the nudity that had been in that draft. "I did want to pass; it scared me," he said. "There's a lot of stuff here that I've never done on film before. But there's no way I can't do this [film], mostly because it scares me so much."[40][41] According to Guadagnino, Hammer was going to pass on the role through his agent, but then changed his mind at the end of their conversation.[15][42] This is the third film in which Hammer has played a homosexual character, following J. Edgar (2011) and Final Portrait (2017).[32][43]

text: Chalamet has acted since he was a child and co-starred on Showtime's Homeland in 2012.[40] The following year, Swardstrom—Spears' husband and agent—introduced the then 17-year-old Chalamet to Guadagnino,[15][28] who immediately felt the actor had "the ambition, the intelligence, the sensitivity, the naivety, and the artistry" to play Elio.[17] Chalamet read Aciman's novel by the time he was seventeen, and described it as "a window into a young person".[33] Chalamet, who can speak fluent French and had played piano for years, arrived in Italy five weeks early to learn Italian, piano, and guitar.[8][44]

text: Michael Stuhlbarg plays Mr. Perlman, Elio's father.[40][45] The actor did not start reading the book until he had already joined the production.[46] He was moved by the "many beautiful sentiments expressed" in the script when he first read it, including Mr. Perlman's "sense of generosity and love and understanding".[47] Amira Casar, Esther Garrel and Victoire Du Bois feature in supporting roles as Annella, Marzia and Chiara respectively.[45] Casting director Stella Savino met Vanda Capriolo when she was biking in the countryside. The non-actor was later cast for the role of the maid, Mafalda.[48] Aciman and Spears themselves also appear briefly in the roles of Mounir and Isaac, a gay couple who attend a dinner party.[8][30] Aciman was asked to be in the movie after actors became unavailable. "It was a last-minute decision," Spears recalled, "Andrė turns out to be a phenomenal actor! So comfortable, not nervous at all. His wife was sitting there and said, 'I had no idea!'"[49]

text: Hammer and Chalamet both signed contracts that prohibited full-frontal nudity. Ivory, whose original screenplay had contained "all sorts of nudity," was dismayed by the decision, criticizing what he saw as an "American" attitude. "Nobody seems to care that much or be shocked about a totally naked woman. It's the men," he said.[9][13] Guadagnino, who remained involved in the casting,[40] chose actors based on their performances and chemistry, rather than choosing to "investigate or label" their sexuality.[29] He said, "The idea that you have to cast only someone who has a certain set of skills, and worse, a certain gender identity in any role: that's oppressive to me".[12]

text: Filming and post-production[edit]

text: Principal photography on Call Me by Your Name lasted between 32–34 days.[50][48] It began on 9 May 2016, shortly after A Bigger Splash was released in the United States,[51] and completed in June 2016.[52][39] The process occurred quietly,[53] with reports only appearing after filming had been underway for two weeks.[54][55] The director's first cut of the film was four hours long.[56][21] Post-production with regular editor Walter Fasano took only a month—between June and July,[15] the fastest Guadagnino had edited.[52]

text: The film was shot primarily in Crema[15][27] and the province of Cremona.[57][58] It was shot during an unexpected historic rainstorm in Italy, described by the weather reports as a "once-in-century rain."[50] The pre-production in Crema was fast:[11] a search for extras began there in March and April.[59][60] Scenes from the nearby villages of Pandino and Moscazzano were filmed from 17 May,[61][62] before moving to Crema on 1 June.[63] Additional outdoor scenes were shot on 4 December 2016.[64][65] Several historical locations in the surrounding streets in Crema and Pandino were chosen during production, including the arch of Torrazzo at the Crema Cathedral.[61][66] Businesses received compensation for financial losses caused by the closure, scheduled for 30 and 31 May.[67] Two days' filming at the cathedral were postponed due to the weather.[68] Production in Crema cost €18,000,[69] with a promotion campaign that cost €7,500.[70]

text: Filming also took place in the Lodigiano area near Crespiatica,[66] and two small towns in the immediate vicinity of Crema: Montodine and Ripalta.[8][64] The archaeological discovery scene was filmed at the Grottoes of Catullus by Lake Garda in Sirmione.[71][66] The trip to Bergamo was shot in multiple historical buildings, including the Bergamo Cathedral, the Santa Maria Maggiore, and the University of Sciences, Letters and Arts.[66] The production team was only able to secure permission to film at the Cascate del Serio in Valbondione for half an hour, owing to concerns about security.[57][66][72]

text: The actors lived in Crema and were able to absorb the rhythm of small-town life.[8] Guadagnino engaged deeply with the cast and filmmakers, and often cooked and showed films for them in his house.[6] Hammer and Chalamet, who did not have to do a screen test together,[17][73] met for the first time during the production in Crema.[52][8] They spent a month together before filming began,[52] watched Mike Tyson documentaries and went to local restaurants,[25][42] to build character development.[52] "We'd hang out with each other all the time, because we were pretty much the only Americans there, and we were able to defend one another and really get to know one another," Chalamet recalled.[44] In the first two days of production, Guadagnino sat down with the cast to read through the script.[19] Hammer and Chalamet went to the kissing scene during the first rehearsal.[73] The actors rehearsed their scenes every night before shooting, and spent several days shooting nude.[74] "I've never been so intimately involved with a director before. Luca was able to look at me and completely undress me," Hammer said.[34]

text: Guadagnino shot the film in chronological order,[19][75] which allowed the filmmakers to "witness the onscreen maturity of both protagonist and actor".[76] The scene where Mr. Perlman delivered an educational speech to Elio was filmed the day before shooting wrapped.[25][19] Stuhlbarg spent months to prepare for the scene,[25][47] one that Guadagnino wanted to make "as simple as possible" by taking less setups and "let the actors be."[77] According to Fasano, the scene took three takes, where Stuhlbarg was "on three different levels of getting emotional."[76]

text: During the dancing sequence, Hammer had to perform in front of "50 extras off camera," with the music being turned down to record the dialogue. "That was not fun, I don't really enjoy dancing," Hammer said.[42] The filmmakers laid a long camera dolly track and shot the scene where Elio conveys his feelings for Oliver in one take, to provide the flexibility and the "flow of emotion" that a cut scene could not.[78] Chalamet was listening to "Visions of Gideon", one of the original songs written for the film, in an earpiece, while filming the final sequence,[79][80] in which the director asked him to perform for three variations, one per take.[81]

text: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, who had previously collaborated with Guadagnino on Ferdinando Cito Filomarino's Antonia (2015), served as the director of photography.[28][55] He read Aciman's novel before receiving the script, and spent time walking around filming locations to "get a feeling for everything [...] to see the color, to see how the light changed during the day, and input it into my data."[82] Lighting is an important factor in Mukdeeprom's work, as he needs the light to be engaged with the characters.[28] In order to capture the Northern Italian summer atmosphere for Call Me by Your Name,[15] he had to create completely artificial light, due to the heavy rains that lasted the entirety of the shoot.[28][50] Mukdeeprom had to adapt his technical approach to the weather condition, "so I had to order a package of lights. I ended up with 15Ks, down to 2.5," he said.[82] The cinematographer also connected to the actors during the scene; when they finished shooting the first take of the confrontation between Oliver and Elio, Mukdeeprom was crying in a corner of the room.[15] The film was shot using 35 mm film and a single lens, a decision influenced by the work of David Cronenberg in order to "solidif[y] the point of view,"[26] and make "the tension of the performance come off the screen."[3]

text: Production design and costume[edit]

text: The main location for the Perlmans' residence was Villa Albergoni, an uninhabited 17th-century mansion in Moscazzano.[8][66] The director initially wanted to buy the house but could not afford it, so he made a film at the place instead.[21][83] A landscape designer was hired to organize an orchard in the mansion's garden.[48] A pergola was shown on the patio, along with apricot and peach trees in the garden, which are not native to Lombardy.[66][84]

text: Six weeks before production, the crew—including production designer Samuel Dehors and first-time set decorator Violante Visconti di Modrone—gradually decorated the house with furniture, objects, and decoration inspired by the characters.[83][8] Much of the furniture, including the dishes and glassware from the '50s, belonged to Guadagnino and di Modrone's parents. "That made it cozy and personal," di Modrone said, "I wanted to give it the sense of time passing by."[85] The Asian-inspired paintings, maps, and mirrors mostly came from an antiques store in Milan.[85][84] Books used in background were published before 1982.[48][84] The swimming pool used in the film was recreated from a watering trough common in the area.[8][85]

text: In public places, the filmmakers set up faded political billboards to reflect the Italian general election in 1983,[48] and re-created a newsstand full of magazines of that particular time.[48] Guadagnino did not want the film to "look like a reflection on the 80s, [...] when it becomes period."[14] His team performed extensive research, with an assist from the residents of Crema, by entering people's houses and collecting their pictures of the '80s.[14][86] Chen Li, a Chinese woman who lives in Milan, served as graphic designer. She wrote the titles in the opening credits, in which the director used Xerox images of statues and placed them with Mr. Perlman's personal items.[48]

text: Costume designer Giulia Piersanti avoided using period costumes, and wanted to provide "a sense of insouciant adolescent sensuality, summer heat and sexual awakening" to the characters.[85] Several costume pieces from the film were made from scratch.[48] The costumes were influenced by the work in French films Pauline at the Beach (1983), A Tale of Springtime (1990), and A Summer's Tale (1996).[85] She took inspiration from her parents' photo albums for the Perlmans' wardrobe. For Oliver's "sexy, healthy American" image, Piersanti referred to "some of Bruce Weber's earliest photographs."[85] His clothes change throughout the film as "he's more able to free himself."[48] Aiming to emphasize Elio's confident style, she chose several Lacoste costumes, and a distinctive New Romantic-looking shirt in the final scene.[14][85] Elio's polo shirt and Fido Dido T-shirt came from her husband's closet.[85]

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text: Guadagnino normally selects the music for his films himself.[8] The director wanted to find an "emotional narrator to the film" through music, a "less heavy, less present, and more enveloping" way than voice and text.[19] He was inspired by the work in Barry Lyndon (1975), The Magnificent Ambersons (1942), and The Age of Innocence (1993).[19] Guadagnino wanted the film's music to be connected to Elio, a young pianist who likes to transcribe and adapt pieces, in order to get close to Oliver.[17] The music is used to reflect the time, the characters' family, level of education, and "the kind of canon they would be a part of".[17] Guadagnino also researched what was popular on the radio that summer, so as to stay true to the time period.[17][87]

text: Guadagnino found that the lyricism of Sufjan Stevens' work resonated with him.[28] The director initially asked Stevens to narrate the film through the older Elio's perspective, and record an original song for Call Me by Your Name, "almost as a break in the narrative".[79][28] Stevens declined the voiceover role,[79] and eventually contributed three songs to the soundtrack: "Mystery of Love", "Visions of Gideon", and a new rendition of "Futile Devices" with piano.[17] Stevens took inspiration from the script, the book, and conversations with the director about the characters.[28] He submitted the songs a few days before shooting began. Surprised by the result, the director listened to them with the actors and Fasano on-set.[8][52] Call Me by Your Name marks Stevens' first contributions to a feature film soundtrack.[88]

text: A soundtrack album was digitally released under Madison Gate Records and Sony Classical on 3 November 2017[89] and physically on 17 November.[90] It features songs by Stevens, The Psychedelic Furs, Franco Battiato, Loredana Bertè, Bandolero, Giorgio Moroder, Joe Esposito, and F. R. David, with compositions by John Adams, Erik Satie, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Maurice Ravel.[91]

text: Release[edit]

text: Call Me by Your Name had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on 22 January 2017.[92][93] Prior to its premiere, Sony Pictures Classics acquired US distribution rights to the film for $6 million.[94] The deal was negotiated by WME Global and UTA Independent Film Group.[95] International distribution rights were purchased by Memento Films International, a French company that showed the film promo reel at the American Film Market in November 2016.[20][96] It was also screened at the Berlin International Film Festival on 13 February 2017, Toronto International Film Festival on 7 September 2017,[97][52][15] and New York Film Festival on 3 October 2017.[98]

text: Call Me by Your Name began a limited release in the United Kingdom on 27 October 2017,[27] and United States on 24 November 2017.[4] It expanded from four to thirty locations in the United States on 15 December 2017,[99] and then to 114 theaters on 22 December.[100] It hit 174 theaters on 12 January 2018,[101] before going into wide release, just days before the Oscar nomination announcement ceremony, on 19 January 2018, reaching 815 theaters.[102][103] In Italy, Warner Bros. Entertainment released the film on 25 January;[104][105][106] special screenings with Guadagnino and the cast took place in Crema on 27–30 January.[106][107][108] The film was opened in Brazil on 18 January,[109] and in France on 28 February 2018.[110] Distributor in Tunisia reported that the Ministry of Culture has banned the film as an "attack on liberties" motivated by the "subject of the film".[111][112]

text: Call Me by Your Name was released for digital download on 27 February 2018.[113] It will be released on Blu-ray, DVD on 13 March 2018. Disc format bonus features audio commentary from the cast and filmmakers, behind the scenes gallery, and a music video for "Mystery of Love".[113]

text: Marketing[edit]

text: Sony Pictures Classics debuted an official poster for Call Me by Your Name on 27 July 2017.[114] The first theatrical trailer was released on 1 August 2017.[115][116] On 11 October 2017, Sony Pictures Classics released a teaser titled "Dance Party" to celebrate National Coming Out Day.[117] The 42-second clip, which consists of one continuous shot of Hammer and Chalamet dancing to "Love My Way" at a bar, became a meme on Twitter.[118][119][35] Due to its placement in the snippet, "Love My Way" also gained streaming popularity, rose 13% on on-demand streams in two months before the film release. In the week ending 30 November 2017, the song collected 177,000 on-demand streams, its biggest streaming week in the country.[120]

text: Reaction to the advertisement on social media was somewhat negative, largely for Sony Pictures' "misleading" use of a still of Chalamet and Garrel instead of focusing on the protagonist's relationship.[121][122] Daniel Megarry of Gay Times described it as "an attempt to 'straight-wash' the movie's predominant same-sex romance",[123] while Benjamin Lee of The Guardian called it a "disastrous attempt to push Oscar-buzzed Call Me by Your Name as a straight love story," and said the advert "belies an industry awkwardly denying queerness".[124] Sony Pictures Classics later aired several commercial spots to promote the film during its nationwide expansion on 19 January 2018.[102]

text: Reception[edit]

text: Box office[edit]

text: As of February 19, 2018[update], Call Me by Your Name has grossed $16.2 million in the United States and Canada, and $13.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $29.5 million, against a production budget of $3.5 million.[4] The film is Sony Pictures Classics third-highest grossing 2017 release.[125]

text: In the United States, the film began its limited run on 24 November 2017 at four theaters: The Paris Theater and Union Square Theatre in New York City, and the ArcLight Hollywood and Landmark Theater in Los Angeles.[126] The film made $404,874 in its opening weekend—a per-theater average of $101,219.[127][128] It was the highest average of 2017, the biggest since that of La La Land the previous December,[129] and had the best per-screen opening for a gay romance film since Brokeback Mountain (2005).[127][130] In its second weekend, the film grossed $281,288,[131][132] with an "excellent" per-screen average of $70,320.[133][134] The film expanded to nine theaters in its third weekend, grossing $291,101 for a "solid" $32,345 per-theater average.[135] It earned $491,933 from 30 theaters in its fourth weekend, averaging $16,398.[99]

text: The film expanded to 114 theaters in its fifth week and grossed $850,736, averaging $7,463 per screen.[100] It made $702,098 in 115 theaters in its sixth weekend, averaging $6,105.[136] The film crossed $6 million in its seventh weekend, earning $758,726 from 115 locations.[137] It grossed $715,559 from 174 theaters in its eight weekend, averaging $4,185 per screen.[101] In its nationwide release week—ninth weekend overall—the film grossed $1.4 million from 815 theaters, an underperformance compared to "some of its competition with similar theater counts".[102][103] The following weekend, following the announcement of its four Oscar nominations, the film dropped 6% to $1.3 million.[138][139] The film grossed $1,000,790 from 581 locations in its eleventh weekend, averaging $1,723.[140] In its twelfth weekend, it grossed $683,460, averaging $1,439 from 475 theaters.[141] It grossed $519,028 from 332 theaters in its thirteenth weekend, averaging $1,563.[142] It made $552,141 from 675 theaters in it fourteenth weekend, averaging $818.[143]

text: In the United Kingdom, the film opened on 27 October 2017 and earned £231,995 ($306,000) in its opening weekend, from 112 screens,[144] including £4,000 from previews.[145] After ten days, it had made a total of £568,000 ($745,000),[146] before reaching the $1 million mark (£767,000) in its third weekend.[147][148] As of 21 February 2018[update], the film has grossed $2,105,609 in the United Kingdom.[149]

text: Critical response[edit]

text: After its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, Call Me by Your Name was met with critical acclaim.[150][97] It received a ten-minute standing ovation at its New York Film Festival screening at the Alice Tully Hall, the longest recorded in the festival's history.[31][151] On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 96% based on 274 reviews, with an average rating of 8.7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Call Me by Your Name offers a melancholy, powerfully affecting portrait of first love, empathetically acted by Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer."[152] It was the best-reviewed limited release and second best-reviewed romance film of 2017 on the site.[153][154] On Metacritic, the film has an average weighted score of 93 out of 100, based on 51 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[155] It was the year's fifth-best rated film on Metacritic.[156]

text: Writing in The Hollywood Reporter, Boyd van Hoeij described Call Me by Your Name as an "extremely sensual [...] intimate and piercingly honest" adaptation of Aciman's novel. He further called Chalamet's performance "the true breakout of the film".[157] Peter Debruge of Variety said the film "advances the canon of gay cinema" by portraying "a story of first love [...] that transcends the same-sex dynamic of its central couple." He compared Guadagnino's "sensual" direction to the films of Pedro Almodóvar and François Ozon, while putting the film "on par with the best of their work."[93] David Ehrlich of IndieWire also praised his direction, which helps the film in "match[ing] the artistry and empathy" of Carol (2015) and Moonlight (2016).[158] Sam Adams of BBC stated that Stuhlbarg's performance "puts a frame around the movie's painting and opens up avenues we may not have thought to explore," and called it "one of his finest" to date. He extolled the film as one of "many movies that have so successfully appealed to both the intellectual and the erotic since the heydays of Patrice Chéreau and André Téchiné."[159]

text: Ty Burr of The Boston Globe gave the film three and a half stars, commended the director for "broadens his embrace of humanity while hitting new heights of cinematic bliss," and wrote that the film "may be a fantasy but it's one that's lovely and wise."[160] David Morgan of CBS praised the cinematography, production design and costuming for "making a summer in the 1980s palpably alive again." He also applauded Stuhlbarg's character as "the most forward-thinking parent in movie history."[161] Richard Lawson felt that Guadagnino's adaptation "was made with real love, with good intentions, with a clarity of heart and purposeful, unpretentious intellect" and hailed it as a "modern gay classic" in his Vanity Fair review.[162] Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips was pleased by the "wonderfully paradoxical" visual interests from the director, and called Stevens' songs "work like magic on your sympathies regarding Elio's emotional awakening." He praised Hammer's performance as one of "the most easy-breathing and relaxed best work of his career."[163]

text: The Economist noted the tension "between pain and pleasure" in the film, and praised Chalamet, specifying that he "evokes so many shades of humanity, portraying a path of youthful self-discovery that is more raw, unhinged, and ultimately honest than many actors could manage."[164] Kate Taylor of Globe and Mail, who gave the film two and a half stars, also enjoyed his effort in capturing "first love and its inevitable heartbreak", but felt that the "multilingual, almost-pre-AIDS idyll does not stretch credulity".[165] Ken Eisner of The Georgia Straight questioned its central message, and said that the film can "alternate wildly between the poetically incisive and the indulgently preposterous."[166] In a negative review, Kyle Turner of Paste wrote "The details of the film are too small for anyone, perhaps particularly a queer person, to see [...] It never gets over that hesitation."[167] Luke Y. Thompson of Forbes criticized its length and called it an "excruciatingly boring travelogue."[168]

text: Accolades[edit]

text: Call Me by Your Name was selected by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute as one of the top 10 films of the year.[169][170] At the 90th Academy Awards, it was nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor (Chalamet), Best Original Song ("Mystery of Love"), and Best Adapted Screenplay, winning the latter.[171][172] Chalamet became the youngest Best Actor nominee since 1939, while Ivory became the oldest-ever winner in any competitive category.[173] Ivory also won Best Adapted Screenplay at the 71st British Academy Film Awards, where the film garnered nominations for Best Film, Best Director (Guadagnino), and Best Leading Actor (Chalamet).[174] At the 75th Golden Globe Awards, it was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for Chalamet, and Best Supporting Actor for Hammer.[175] It received eight nominations at the 23rd Critics' Choice Awards, with Ivory winning Best Adapted Screenplay.[176]

text: The film led the 33rd Independent Spirit Awards with six nominations, winning Best Male Lead for Chalamet, and Best Cinematography for Sayombhu Mukdeeprom.[177][178] At the 23rd Screen Actors Guild Awards, Chalamet received a nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role.[179] The film garnered four nominations at the 71st British Academy Film Awards, including Best Film and Best Direction, winning Best Adapted Screenplay for Ivory.[180] The National Board of Review, the Gotham Independent Film Awards and the Hollywood Film Awards awarded Chalamet with their Breakout Actor Awards.[181][182]

text: Potential sequel[edit]

text: Guadagnino has deliberated over the idea of a sequel since the film's premiere at Sundance, when he realized the characters "could go beyond the boundaries of the film."[32] In October 2017, he stated that he hoped to make a sequel to the film in 2020, suggesting it might be in the style of François Truffaut's The Adventures of Antoine Doinel series, while telling the story of Oliver and Elio as they aged. "If I paired the age of Elio in the film with the age of Timothée, in three years' time, Timothée will be 25, as would Elio by the time the second story was set," he said.[183][184] In the novel, Elio and Oliver reunited 15 years later, when Oliver is married. Guadagnino specified that in the sequel, "I don't think Elio is necessarily going to become a gay man. He hasn't found his place yet. I can tell you that I believe that he would start an intense relationship with Marzia again." Guadagnino is also interested in the politics of the 1990s, saying "it would be the beginning of the Berlusconi era in Italy and it would mean dealing with the war of Iraq."[185][186]

text: In November 2017, Guadagnino shared his intention to make a series of five films, where the audience could "see those actors grow older, embodying those characters."[32] A month later, he was reported to have begun writing a script for a sequel, one that would reveal more about Oliver and resembles Michael Apted's Up series.[187][188] Hammer and Chalamet have both expressed interest in participating in a sequel,[189] while Ivory has no interest to the material, saying "that's fine, good. But I don't know how they're going to get a 40-year-old [Chalamet]!".[23] In January 2018, Guadagnino revealed the setting will be "right after the fall of Berlin Wall and that great shift that was the end of [...] the USSR,"[77] and what could be the first scene in the film, is where Elio watching Paul Vecchiali's Once More (1988), the first French film to deal with AIDS, in a movie theater.[190]


document_title: Agent Orange

question_text: who decided to use agent orange in vietnam

question_tokens: who decided to use agent orange in vietnam

root

text: Agent Orange

text: Chemical composition[edit]

text: The main ingredients of Agent Orange comprise an equal mixture of two phenoxyl herbicides – 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D) and 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) – in iso-octyl ester form, which contained traces of 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD).[5]

tag: p

text: The dioxin TCDD is a significant contaminant of Agent Orange. TCDD is the most toxic of the dioxins, and is classified as a human carcinogen by the US Environmental Protection Agency.[6]

text: Agent Orange dries quickly after spraying and breaks down within hours to days when exposed to sunlight (if not bound chemically to a biological surface such as soil, leaves and grass) and is no longer harmful.[7]

text: Toxicology[edit]

text: Due to its fat-soluble nature, TCDD enters the body through physical contact or ingestion.[8] Dioxin easily accumulates in the food chain. Dioxin enters the body by attaching to a protein called the aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AhR), a transcription factor. When TCDD binds to AhR, the protein moves to the nucleus, where it influences gene expression.[9][10]

text: Development[edit]

text: Several herbicides were discovered as part of efforts by the USA and the British to develop herbicidal weapons for use during World War II. These included 2,4-D (2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid), 2,4,5-T (coded LN-14, and also known as trioxone), MCPA (2-methyl-4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid, 1414B and 1414A, recoded LN-8 and LN-32), and isopropyl phenylcarbamate (1313, recoded LN-33).[11]

text: In 1943, the U.S. Department of the Army contracted the botanist and bioethicist Arthur Galston, who discovered the defoliants later used in Agent Orange, and his employer University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana to study the effects of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T on cereal grains (including rice) and broadleaf crops.[12] Galston, then a graduate student at the University of Illinois, in his research and 1943 Ph.D. dissertation focused on finding a chemical means to make soybeans flower and fruit earlier.[13] He discovered both that 2,3,5-triiodobenzoic acid (TIBA) would speed up the flowering of soybeans and that in higher concentrations it would defoliate the soybeans.[13] From these studies arose the concept of using aerial applications of herbicides to destroy enemy crops to disrupt their food supply. In early 1945, the U.S. Army ran tests of various 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T mixtures at the Bushnell Army Airfield in Florida. As a result, the U.S. began a full-scale production of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T and would have used it against Japan in 1946 during Operation Downfall if the war had continued.[14][15]

text: By the end of the war, the relationship between the two countries was well established. In the years after the war, the U.S. tested 1,100 compounds, and field trials of the more promising ones were done at British stations in India and Australia, in order to establish their effects in tropical conditions, as well as at the U.S.'s testing ground in Florida.[11]

text: Between 1950 and 1952, trials were conducted in Tanganyika, at Kikore and Stunyansa, to test arboricides and defoliants under tropical conditions. The chemicals involved were 2,4-D, 2,4,5-T, and endothall (3,6-endoxohexahydrophthalic acid). During 1952–53, the unit supervised the aerial spraying of 2,4,5-T over the Waturi peninsula in Kenya to assess the value of defoliants in the eradication of tsetse fly.[11]

text: Early use[edit]

text: During the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960), Britain was the first nation to employ the use of herbicides and defoliants to destroy bushes, trees, and vegetation to deprive insurgents of concealment and targeting food crops as part of a starvation campaign in the early 1950s.[16] A detailed account of how the British experimented with the spraying of herbicides was written by two scientists, E.K. Woodford of Agricultural Research Council's Unit of Experimental Agronomy and H.G.H. Kearns of the University of Bristol.[11]

text: After the Malayan conflict ended in 1960, the U.S. considered the British precedent in deciding that the use of defoliants was a legal tactic of warfare. Secretary of State Dean Rusk advised President John F. Kennedy that the British had established a precedent for warfare with herbicides in Malaya.[17]

text: Use in the Vietnam War[edit]

text: In mid-1961, President Ngo Dinh Diem of South Vietnam asked the United States to conduct aerial herbicide spraying in his country.[18] In August of that year, the Republic of Vietnam Air Force conducted herbicide operations with American help. But Diem's request launched a policy debate in the White House and the State and Defense Departments. However, U.S. officials considered using it, pointing out that the British had already used herbicides and defoliants during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s. In November 1961, President John F. Kennedy authorized the start of Operation Ranch Hand, the codename for the U.S. Air Force's herbicide program in Vietnam.

text: During the Vietnam War, between 1962 and 1971, the United States military sprayed nearly 20,000,000 U.S. gallons (75,700,000 L) of various chemicals – the "rainbow herbicides" and defoliants – in Vietnam, eastern Laos, and parts of Cambodia as part of the aerial defoliation program known as Operation Ranch Hand, reaching its peak from 1967 to 1969. For comparison purposes, an olympic size pool holds approximately 660,000 U.S. gallons (2,500,000 L).[19][20][21] As the British did in Malaya, the goal of the US was to defoliate rural/forested land, depriving guerrillas of food and concealment and clearing sensitive areas such as around base perimeters.[22] The program was also a part of a general policy of forced draft urbanization, which aimed to destroy the ability of peasants to support themselves in the countryside, forcing them to flee to the U.S.-dominated cities, depriving the guerrillas of their rural support base.[20][23]

text: Agent Orange was usually sprayed from helicopters or from low-flying C-123 Provider aircraft, fitted with sprayers and "MC-1 Hourglass" pump systems and 1,000 U.S. gal (3,800 L) chemical tanks. Spray runs were also conducted from trucks, boats, and backpack sprayers.[24][25][26]

text: The first batch of herbicides was unloaded at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in South Vietnam, on January 9, 1962.[27] U.S. Air Force records show at least 6,542 spraying missions took place over the course of Operation Ranch Hand.[28] By 1971, 12 percent of the total area of South Vietnam had been sprayed with defoliating chemicals, at an average concentration of 13 times the recommended U.S. Department of Agriculture application rate for domestic use.[29] In South Vietnam alone, an estimated 10 million hectares of agricultural land was ultimately destroyed.[30] In some areas, TCDD concentrations in soil and water were hundreds of times greater than the levels considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.[31][32]

text: The campaign destroyed 5 million acres (20,000 km2) of upland and mangrove forests and millions of acres of crops.[33] Overall, more than 20% of South Vietnam's forests were sprayed at least once over a nine-year period.[23][34]

text: In 1965, members of the U.S. Congress were told "crop destruction is understood to be the more important purpose ... but the emphasis is usually given to the jungle defoliation in public mention of the program."[34] Military personnel were told they were destroying crops because they were going to be used to feed guerrillas. They later discovered nearly all of the food they had been destroying was not being produced for guerrillas; it was, in reality, only being grown to support the local civilian population. For example, in Quang Ngai province, 85% of the crop lands were scheduled to be destroyed in 1970 alone. This contributed to widespread famine, leaving hundreds of thousands of people malnourished or starving.[35]

text: The U.S. military began targeting food crops in October 1962, primarily using Agent Blue; the American public was not made aware of the crop destruction programs until 1965 (and it was then believed that crop spraying had begun that spring). In 1965, 42 percent of all herbicide spraying was dedicated to food crops. The first official acknowledgement of the programs came from the State Department in March 1966.[15][23]

text: Many experts at the time, including Arthur Galston, opposed herbicidal warfare due to concerns about the side effects to humans and the environment by indiscriminately spraying the chemical over a wide area. As early as 1966, resolutions were introduced to the United Nations charging that the U.S. was violating the 1925 Geneva Protocol, which regulated the use of chemical and biological weapons. The U.S. defeated most of the resolutions,[36][37] arguing that Agent Orange was not a chemical or a biological weapon as it was considered a herbicide and a defoliant and it was used in effort to destroy plant crops and to deprive the enemy of concealment and not meant to target human beings. The U.S. delegation argued that a weapon, by definition, is any device used to injure, defeat, or destroy living beings, structures, or systems, and Agent Orange did not qualify under that definition. It also argued that if the U.S. were to be charged for using Agent Orange, then Britain and its Commonwealth nations should be charged since they also used it widely during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s.[38] In 1969, Britain commented on the draft Resolution 2603 (XXIV): "The evidence seems to us to be notably inadequate for the assertion that the use in war of chemical substances specifically toxic to plants is prohibited by international law."[39]

text:
Stacks of 55-gallon (200 L) drums containing Agent Orange.

Defoliant spray run, part of Operation Ranch Hand, during the Vietnam War by UC-123B Provider aircraft.

U.S. Army armored personnel carrier (APC) spraying Agent Orange over Vietnamese rice fields during the Vietnam War.

A UH-1D helicopter from the 336th Aviation Company sprays a defoliation agent over farmland in the Mekong Delta.

tag: ul

text: Health effects[edit]

text: Vietnamese people[edit]

text: The government of Vietnam says that 4 million of its citizens were exposed to Agent Orange, and as many as 3 million have suffered illnesses because of it; these figures include their children who were exposed.[40] The Red Cross of Vietnam estimates that up to 1 million people are disabled or have health problems due to contaminated Agent Orange.[41] The United States government has challenged these figures as being unreliable.[42]

text: According to a study by Dr. Nguyen Viet Nhan, children in the areas where Agent Orange was used have been affected and have multiple health problems, including cleft palate, mental disabilities, hernias, and extra fingers and toes.[43][44] In the 1970s, high levels of dioxin were found in the breast milk of South Vietnamese women, and in the blood of U.S. military personnel who had served in Vietnam.[45] The most affected zones are the mountainous area along Truong Son (Long Mountains) and the border between Vietnam and Cambodia. The affected residents are living in substandard conditions with many genetic diseases.[46][47][page needed]

text: In 2006, Anh Duc Ngo and colleagues of the University of Texas Health Science Center published a meta-analysis that exposed a large amount of heterogeneity (different findings) between studies, a finding consistent with a lack of consensus on the issue.[48] Despite this, statistical analysis of the studies they examined resulted in data that the increase in birth defects/relative risk (RR) from exposure to agent orange/dioxin "appears" to be on the order of 3 in Vietnamese funded studies but 1.29 in the rest of the world. With a casual relationship near the threshold of statistical significance in still-births, cleft palate, and neural tube defects, with spina bifida being the most statistically significant defect.[49] The large discrepancy in RR between Vietnamese studies and those in the rest of the world has been ascribed to bias in the Vietnamese studies.[48]

text: 28 of the former U.S. military bases in Vietnam where the herbicides were stored and loaded onto airplanes may still have high level of dioxins in the soil, posing a health threat to the surrounding communities. Extensive testing for dioxin contamination has been conducted at the former U.S. airbases in Danang, Phù Cát District and Biên Hòa. Some of the soil and sediment on the bases have extremely high levels of dioxin requiring remediation. The Da Nang Air Base has dioxin contamination up to 350 times higher than international recommendations for action.[50][51] The contaminated soil and sediment continue to affect the citizens of Vietnam, poisoning their food chain and causing illnesses, serious skin diseases and a variety of cancers in the lungs, larynx, and prostate.[43]

text: Major Tự Đức Phang was exposed to dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange.

text: U.S. veterans[edit]

text: Several publications published by the Public Health Service have shown that veterans have increased rates of cancer, and nerve, digestive, skin, and respiratory disorders. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention notes that in particular, there are higher rates of acute/chronic leukemia, Hodgkin's lymphoma and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, throat cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, Ischemic heart disease, soft tissue sarcoma and liver cancer.[52][53] With the exception of liver cancer, these are the same conditions the U.S. Veterans Administration has determined may be associated with exposure to Agent Orange/dioxin, and are on the list of conditions eligible for compensation and treatment.[54][53]

text: Military personnel who were involved in storage, mixture and transportation (including aircraft mechanics), and actual use of the chemicals were probably among those who received the heaviest exposures.[55] Military members who served on Okinawa also claim to have been exposed to the chemical but there is no verifiable evidence to corroborate these claims.[56]

text: More recent research established that veterans exposed to Agent Orange suffer more than twice the rate of highly aggressive prostate cancer.[57] Additionally, recent reports from the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences show that Agent Orange exposure also doubles the risk of invasive skin cancers.[58]

text: While in Vietnam, the veterans were told not to worry, and were persuaded the chemical was harmless.[59] After returning home, Vietnam veterans began to suspect their ill health or the instances of their wives having miscarriages or children born with birth defects might be related to Agent Orange and the other toxic herbicides to which they had been exposed in Vietnam. Veterans began to file claims in 1977 to the Department of Veterans Affairs for disability payments for health care for conditions they believed were associated with exposure to Agent Orange, or more specifically, dioxin, but their claims were denied unless they could prove the condition began when they were in the service or within one year of their discharge.[60]

text: By April 1993, the Department of Veterans Affairs had compensated only 486 victims, although it had received disability claims from 39,419 soldiers who had been exposed to Agent Orange while serving in Vietnam.[61]

text: Ecological impact[edit]

text: About 17.8 percent—3,100,000 hectares (12,000 sq mi)—of the total forested area of Vietnam was sprayed during the war, which disrupted the ecological equilibrium. The persistent nature of dioxins, erosion caused by loss of tree cover, and loss of seedling forest stock meant that reforestation was difficult (or impossible) in many areas.[4] Many defoliated forest areas were quickly invaded by aggressive pioneer species (such as bamboo and cogon grass), making forest regeneration difficult and unlikely. Animal-species diversity was also impacted; in one study a Harvard biologist found 24 species of birds and five species of mammals in a sprayed forest, while in two adjacent sections of unsprayed forest there were 145 and 170 species of birds and 30 and 55 species of mammals.[62]

text: Dioxins from Agent Orange have persisted in the Vietnamese environment since the war, settling in the soil and sediment and entering the food chain through animals and fish which feed in the contaminated areas. The movement of dioxins through the food web has resulted in bioconcentration and biomagnification.[3] The areas most heavily contaminated with dioxins are former U.S. air bases.[63]

text: Sociopolitical impact[edit]

text: American policy during the Vietnam war was to destroy crops, accepting the sociopolitical impact that that would have.[64] The RAND Corporation's Memorandum 5446-ISA/ARPA states: "the fact that the VC [the Vietcong] obtain most of their food from the neutral rural population dictates the destruction of civilian crops ... if they are to be hampered by the crop destruction program, it will be necessary to destroy large portions of the rural economy – probably 50% or more".[65] Crops were deliberately sprayed with Agent Orange, areas were bulldozed clear of vegetation, and the rural population was subjected to bombing and artillery fire. In consequence, the urban population in South Vietnam nearly tripled, growing from 2.8 million people in 1958 to 8 million by 1971. The rapid flow of people led to a fast-paced and uncontrolled urbanization; an estimated 1.5 million people were living in Saigon slums due to people moving to cities.[66][64]

text: Legal and diplomatic proceedings[edit]

text: International[edit]

text: The extensive environmental damage that resulted from usage of the herbicide prompted the United Nations to pass Resolution 31/72 and ratify the Environmental Modification Convention. Many states do not regard this as a complete ban on the use of herbicides and defoliants in warfare but it does require case-by-case consideration.[67][68]

text: In the Conference on Disarmament, Article 2(4) Protocol III of the weaponry convention contains "The Jungle Exception", which prohibits states from attacking forests or jungles "except if such natural elements are used to cover, conceal or camouflage combatants or military objectives or are military objectives themselves". This exception voids any protection of any military and civilian personnel from a napalm attack or something like Agent Orange and is clear that it was designed to cover situations like U.S. tactics in Vietnam. This clause has yet to be revised.[69]

text: U.S. veterans class action lawsuit against manufacturers[edit]

text: Since at least 1978, several lawsuits have been filed against the companies which produced Agent Orange, among them Dow Chemical, Monsanto, and Diamond Shamrock.[70]:6

text: Attorney Hy Mayerson was an early pioneer in Agent Orange litigation, working with environmental attorney Victor Yannacone in 1980 on the first class-action suits against wartime manufacturers of Agent Orange. In meeting Dr. Ronald A. Codario, one of the first civilian doctors to see afflicted patients, Mayerson, so impressed by the fact a physician would show so much interest in a Vietnam veteran, forwarded more than a thousand pages of information on Agent Orange and the effects of dioxin on animals and humans to Codario's office the day after he was first contacted by the doctor.[71] The corporate defendants sought to escape culpability by blaming everything on the U.S. government.[72]

text: Mayerson, with Sgt. Charles E. Hartz as their principal client, filed the first US Agent Orange class-action lawsuit, in Pennsylvania in 1980, for the injuries military personnel in Vietnam suffered through exposure to toxic dioxins in the defoliant.[73] Attorney Mayerson co-wrote the brief that certified the Agent Orange Product Liability action as a class action, the largest ever filed as of its filing.[74] Hartz's deposition was one of the first ever taken in America, and the first for an Agent Orange trial, for the purpose of preserving testimony at trial, as it was understood that Hartz would not live to see the trial because of a brain tumor that began to develop while he was a member of Tiger Force, Special Forces, and LRRPs in Vietnam.[75][76] The firm also located and supplied critical research to the Veterans' lead expert, Dr. Codario, including about 100 articles from toxicology journals dating back more than a decade, as well as data about where herbicides had been sprayed, what the effects of dioxin had been on animals and humans, and every accident in factories where herbicides were produced or dioxin was a contaminant of some chemical reaction.[71]

text: The chemical companies involved denied that there was a link between Agent Orange and the veterans' medical problems. However, on May 7, 1984, seven chemical companies settled the class-action suit out of court just hours before jury selection was to begin. The companies agreed to pay $180 million as compensation if the veterans dropped all claims against them.[77] Slightly over 45% of the sum was ordered to be paid by Monsanto alone.[78] Many veterans who were victims of Agent Orange exposure were outraged the case had been settled instead of going to court, and felt they had been betrayed by the lawyers. "Fairness Hearings" were held in five major American cities, where veterans and their families discussed their reactions to the settlement, and condemned the actions of the lawyers and courts, demanding the case be heard before a jury of their peers. Federal Judge Julius Weinstein refused the appeals, claiming the settlement was "fair and just". By 1989, the veterans' fears were confirmed when it was decided how the money from the settlement would be paid out. A totally disabled Vietnam veteran would receive a maximum of $12,000 spread out over the course of 10 years. Furthermore, by accepting the settlement payments, disabled veterans would become ineligible for many state benefits that provided far more monetary support than the settlement, such as food stamps, public assistance, and government pensions. A widow of a Vietnam veteran who died of Agent Orange exposure would only receive $3700.[79]

text: In 2004, Monsanto spokesman Jill Montgomery said Monsanto should not be liable at all for injuries or deaths caused by Agent Orange, saying: "We are sympathetic with people who believe they have been injured and understand their concern to find the cause, but reliable scientific evidence indicates that Agent Orange is not the cause of serious long-term health effects."[80]

text: New Jersey Agent Orange Commission[edit]

text: In 1980, New Jersey created the New Jersey Agent Orange Commission, the first state commission created to study its effects. The commission's research project in association with Rutgers University was called "The Pointman Project". It was disbanded by Governor Christine Todd Whitman in 1996.[81]

text: During Pointman I, commission researchers devised ways to determine small dioxin levels in blood. Prior to this, such levels could only be found in the adipose (fat) tissue. The project studied dioxin (TCDD) levels in blood as well as in adipose tissue in a small group of Vietnam veterans who had been exposed to Agent Orange and compared them to those of a matched control group; the levels were found to be higher in the former group.[82]

text: The second phase of the project continued to examine and compare dioxin levels in various groups of Vietnam veterans, including Army, Marines and brown water riverboat Navy personnel.[83]

text: U.S. Congress[edit]

text: In 1991, Congress enacted the Agent Orange Act, giving the Department of Veterans Affairs the authority to declare certain conditions 'presumptive' to exposure to Agent Orange/dioxin, making these veterans who served in Vietnam eligible to receive treatment and compensation for these conditions.[84] The same law required the National Academy of Sciences to periodically review the science on dioxin and herbicides used in Vietnam to inform the Secretary of Veterans Affairs about the strength of the scientific evidence showing association between exposure to Agent Orange/dioxin and certain conditions.[85] The authority for the National Academy of Sciences reviews and addition of any new diseases to the presumptive list by the VA is expiring in 2015 under the sunset clause of the Agent Orange Act of 1991.[86] Through this process, the list of 'presumptive' conditions has grown since 1991, and currently the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has listed prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, multiple myeloma, type II diabetes mellitus, Hodgkin's disease, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda, peripheral neuropathy, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, and spina bifida in children of veterans exposed to Agent Orange as conditions associated with exposure to the herbicide. This list now includes B cell leukemias, such as hairy cell leukemia, Parkinson's disease and ischemic heart disease, these last three having been added on August 31, 2010. Several highly placed individuals in government are voicing concerns about whether some of the diseases on the list should, in fact, actually have been included.[87]

text: In 2011, an appraisal of the 20 year long Air Force Health Study that began in 1982 indicates that the results of the AFHS as they pretain to Agent Orange, do not provide evidence of disease in the Ranch Hand veterans due to "their elevated levels of exposure to Agent Orange".[88]

text: The VA denied the applications of post-Vietnam C-123 aircrew veterans because as veterans without "boots on the ground" service in Vietnam, they were not covered under VA's interpretation of "exposed". At the request of the VA, the Institute Of Medicine evaluated whether or not service in these C-123 aircraft could have plausibly exposed soldiers and been detrimental to their health. Their report "Post-Vietnam Dioxin Exposure in Agent Orange-Contaminated C-123 Aircraft" confirmed it.[89] In June 2015 the Secretary of Veterans Affairs issued an Interim final rule providing presumptive service connection for post-Vietnam C-123 aircrews, maintenance staff and aeromedical evacuation crews. VA now provides medical care and disability compensation for the recognized list of Agent Orange illnesses.[90]

text: U.S.–Vietnamese government negotiations[edit]

text: In 2002, Vietnam and the U.S. held a joint conference on Human Health and Environmental Impacts of Agent Orange. Following the conference, the U.S. National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) began scientific exchanges between the U.S. and Vietnam, and began discussions for a joint research project on the human health impacts of Agent Orange.[91]

text: These negotiations broke down in 2005, when neither side could agree on the research protocol and the research project was cancelled. More progress has been made on the environmental front. In 2005, the first U.S.-Vietnam workshop on remediation of dioxin was held.[91]

text: Starting in 2005, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began to work with the Vietnamese government to measure the level of dioxin at the Da Nang Airbase. Also in 2005, the Joint Advisory Committee on Agent Orange, made up of representatives of Vietnamese and U.S. government agencies, was established. The committee has been meeting yearly to explore areas of scientific cooperation, technical assistance and environmental remediation of dioxin.[92]

text: A breakthrough in the diplomatic stalemate on this issue occurred as a result of United States President George W. Bush's state visit to Vietnam in November 2006. In the joint statement, President Bush and President Triet agreed "further joint efforts to address the environmental contamination near former dioxin storage sites would make a valuable contribution to the continued development of their bilateral relationship."[93]

text: On May 25, 2007, President Bush signed the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans' Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007 into law for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that included an earmark of $3 million specifically for funding for programs for the remediation of dioxin 'hotspots' on former U.S. military bases, and for public health programs for the surrounding communities;[94] some authors consider this to be completely inadequate, pointing out that the U.S. airbase in Da Nang, alone, will cost $14 million to clean up, and that three others are estimated to require $60 million for cleanup.[32] The appropriation was renewed in the fiscal year 2009 and again in FY 2010. An additional $12 million was appropriated in the fiscal year 2010 in the Supplemental Appropriations Act and a total of $18.5 million appropriated for fiscal year 2011.[95]

text: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated during a visit to Hanoi in October 2010 that the U.S. government would begin work on the clean-up of dioxin contamination at the Da Nang airbase.[96]

text: In June 2011, a ceremony was held at Da Nang airport to mark the start of U.S.-funded decontamination of dioxin hotspots in Vietnam. Thirty-two million dollars has so far been allocated by the U.S. Congress to fund the program.[97]

text: A $43 million project began in the summer of 2012, as Vietnam and the U.S. forge closer ties to boost trade and counter China's rising influence in the disputed South China Sea.[98]

text: Vietnamese victims class action lawsuit in U.S. courts[edit]

text: On January 31, 2004, a victim's rights group, the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin (VAVA), filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, against several U.S. companies for liability in causing personal injury, by developing, and producing the chemical, and claimed that the use of Agent Orange violated the 1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare, 1925 Geneva Protocol, and the 1949 Geneva Conventions. Dow Chemical and Monsanto were the two largest producers of Agent Orange for the U.S. military, and were named in the suit, along with the dozens of other companies (Diamond Shamrock, Uniroyal, Thompson Chemicals, Hercules, etc.). On March 10, 2005, Judge Jack B. Weinstein of the Eastern District – who had presided over the 1984 U.S. veterans class-action lawsuit – dismissed the lawsuit, ruling there was no legal basis for the plaintiffs' claims. He concluded Agent Orange was not considered a poison under international law at the time of its use by the U.S.; the U.S. was not prohibited from using it as a herbicide; and the companies which produced the substance were not liable for the method of its use by the government.[99] Weinstein used the British example to help dismiss the claims of people exposed to Agent Orange in their suit against the chemical companies that had supplied it.[100][101]

text: The Department of Defense's Advanced Research Project Agency's (ARPA) Project AGILE was instrumental in the United States' development of herbicides as a military weapon, an undertaking inspired by the British use of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T to destroy jungle-grown crops and bushes during the insurgency in Malaya. The United States considered British precedent in deciding that the use of defoliants was a legally accepted tactic of war. On November 24, 1961, Secretary of State Dean Rusk advised President John F. Kennedy that herbicide use in Vietnam would be lawful, saying that "[t]he use of defoliant does not violate any rule of international law concerning the conduct of chemical warfare and is an accepted tactic of war. Precedent has been established by the British during the emergency in Malaya in their use of helicopters for destroying crops by chemical spraying."[102][103]

text: George Jackson stated that "if the Americans were guilty of war crimes for using Agent Orange in Vietnam, then the British would be also guilty of war crimes as well since they were the first nation to deploy the use of herbicides and defoliants in warfare and used them on a large scale throughout the Malayan Emergency. Not only was there no outcry by other states in response to Britain's use, but the U.S. viewed it as establishing a precedent for the use of herbicides and defoliants in jungle warfare." The U.S. government was also not a party in the lawsuit, due to sovereign immunity, and the court ruled the chemical companies, as contractors of the U.S. government, shared the same immunity. The case was appealed and heard by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on June 18, 2007. Three judges on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Weinstein's ruling to dismiss the case. They ruled that, though the herbicides contained a dioxin (a known poison), they were not intended to be used as a poison on humans. Therefore, they were not considered a chemical weapon and thus not a violation of international law. A further review of the case by the whole panel of judges of the Court of Appeals also confirmed this decision. The lawyers for the Vietnamese filed a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case. On March 2, 2009, the Supreme Court denied certiorari and refused to reconsider the ruling of the Court of Appeals.[104][105]

text: In a November 2004 Zogby International poll of 987 people, 79% of respondents thought the U.S. chemical companies which produced Agent Orange defoliant should compensate U.S. soldiers who were affected by the toxic chemical used during the war in Vietnam. Also, 51% said they supported compensation for Vietnamese Agent Orange victims.[106]

text: Help for those affected in Vietnam[edit]

text: To assist those who have been affected by Agent Orange/dioxin, the Vietnamese have established "peace villages", which each host between 50 and 100 victims, giving them medical and psychological help. As of 2006, there were 11 such villages, thus granting some social protection to fewer than a thousand victims. U.S. veterans of the war in Vietnam and individuals who are aware and sympathetic to the impacts of Agent Orange have supported these programs in Vietnam. An international group of veterans from the U.S. and its allies during the Vietnam War working with their former enemy—veterans from the Vietnam Veterans Association—established the Vietnam Friendship Village outside of Hanoi.[107]

text: The center provides medical care, rehabilitation and vocational training for children and veterans from Vietnam who have been affected by Agent Orange. In 1998, The Vietnam Red Cross established the Vietnam Agent Orange Victims Fund to provide direct assistance to families throughout Vietnam that have been affected. In 2003, the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA) was formed. In addition to filing the lawsuit against the chemical companies, VAVA provides medical care, rehabilitation services and financial assistance to those injured by Agent Orange.[108]

text: The Vietnamese government provides small monthly stipends to more than 200,000 Vietnamese believed affected by the herbicides; this totaled $40.8 million in 2008 alone. The Vietnam Red Cross has raised more than $22 million to assist the ill or disabled, and several U.S. foundations, United Nations agencies, European governments and nongovernmental organizations have given a total of about $23 million for site cleanup, reforestation, health care and other services to those in need.[109]

text: Vuong Mo of the Vietnam News Agency described one of the centers:[110]

text: May is 13, but she knows nothing, is unable to talk fluently, nor walk with ease due to for her bandy legs. Her father is dead and she has four elder brothers, all mentally retarded ... The students are all disabled, retarded and of different ages. Teaching them is a hard job. They are of the 3rd grade but many of them find it hard to do the reading. Only a few of them can. Their pronunciation is distorted due to their twisted lips and their memory is quite short. They easily forget what they've learned ... In the Village, it is quite hard to tell the kids' exact ages. Some in their twenties have a physical statures as small as the 7- or 8-years-old. They find it difficult to feed themselves, much less have mental ability or physical capacity for work. No one can hold back the tears when seeing the heads turning round unconsciously, the bandy arms managing to push the spoon of food into the mouths with awful difficulty ... Yet they still keep smiling, singing in their great innocence, at the presence of some visitors, craving for something beautiful.

text: On June 16, 2010, members of the U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin unveiled a comprehensive 10-year Declaration and Plan of Action to address the toxic legacy of Agent Orange and other herbicides in Vietnam. The Plan of Action was released as an Aspen Institute publication and calls upon the U.S. and Vietnamese governments to join with other governments, foundations, businesses, and nonprofits in a partnership to clean up dioxin "hot spots" in Vietnam and to expand humanitarian services for people with disabilities there.[111][112][113] On September 16, 2010, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) acknowledged the work of the Dialogue Group by releasing a statement on the floor of the United States Senate. The statement urges the U.S. government to take the Plan of Action's recommendations into account in developing a multi-year plan of activities to address the Agent Orange/dioxin legacy.[114]

text: Use outside Vietnam[edit]

text: Australia[edit]

text: In 2008, Australian researcher Jean Williams claimed that cancer rates in the town of Innisfail, Queensland were 10 times higher than the state average due to secret testing of Agent Orange by the Australian military scientists during the Vietnam War. Williams, who had won the Order of Australia medal for her research on the effects of chemicals on U.S. war veterans, based her allegations on Australian government reports found in the Australian War Memorial's archives. A former soldier, Ted Bosworth, backed up the claims, saying that he had been involved in the secret testing. Neither Williams or Bosworth have produced verifiable evidence to support their claims. The Queensland health department determined that cancer rates in Innisfail were no higher than those in other parts of the state.[115]

text: Brazil[edit]

text: The Brazilian government in the late 1960s used herbicides to defoliate a large section of the Amazon rainforest so that Alcoa could build the Tucuruí dam to power mining operations.[116] Large areas of rainforest were destroyed, along with the homes and livelihoods of thousands of rural peasants and indigenous tribes.[117]

text: Cambodia[edit]

text: Agent Orange was used as a defoliant in eastern Cambodia during the Vietnam War, but its impacts are difficult to assess due to the chaos caused by the Khmer Rouge regime.[118]

text: Canada[edit]

text: The U.S. military, with the permission of the Canadian government, tested herbicides, including Agent Orange, in the forests near the Canadian Forces Base Gagetown in New Brunswick.[119] In 2007, the government of Canada offered a one-time ex gratia payment of $20,000 as compensation for Agent Orange exposure at CFB Gagetown.[120] On July 12, 2005, Merchant Law Group LLP on behalf of over 1,100 Canadian veterans and civilians who were living in and around the CFB Gagetown filed a lawsuit to pursue class action litigation concerning Agent Orange and Agent Purple with the Federal Court of Canada.[121] On August 4, 2009, the case was rejected by the court due to lack of evidence. The ruling was appealed.[122][123] In 2007, the Canadian government announced that a research and fact-finding program initiated in 2005 had found the base was safe.[124]

text: On February 17, 2011, the Toronto Star revealed that Agent Orange was employed to clear extensive plots of Crown land in Northern Ontario.[125] The Toronto Star reported that, "records from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s show forestry workers, often students and junior rangers, spent weeks at a time as human markers holding red, helium-filled balloons on fishing lines while low-flying planes sprayed toxic herbicides including an infamous chemical mixture known as Agent Orange on the brush and the boys below."[125] In response to the Toronto Star article, the Ontario provincial government launched a probe into the use of Agent Orange.[126]

text: Guam[edit]

text: An analysis of chemicals present in the island's soil, together with resolutions passed by Guam's legislature, suggest that Agent Orange was among the herbicides routinely used on and around military bases Anderson Air Force Base, Naval Air Station Agana, Guam. Despite the evidence, the Department of Defense continues to deny that Agent Orange was ever stored or used on Guam. Several Guam veterans have collected an enormous amount of evidence to assist in their disability claims for direct exposure to dioxin containing herbicides such as 2,4,5-T which are similar to the illness associations and disability coverage that has become standard for those who were harmed by the same chemical contaminant of Agent Orange used in Vietnam.[127]

text: Korea[edit]

text: Agent Orange was used in Korea in the late 1960s.[128]

text: The United States local press KPHO-TV in Phoenix, Arizona, alleged (in 2011) that the United States Army had in 1978 buried 250 drums of Agent Orange in Camp Carroll, the U.S. Army base in Gyeongsangbuk-do, Korea.[129]

text: In 1999, about 20,000 South Koreans filed two separated lawsuits against U.S. companies, seeking more than $5 billion in damages. After losing a decision in 2002, they filed an appeal.[130]

text: In January 2006, the South Korean Appeals Court ordered Dow Chemical and Monsanto to pay $62 million in compensation to about 6,800 people. The ruling acknowledged that "the defendants failed to ensure safety as the defoliants manufactured by the defendants had higher levels of dioxins than standard", and, quoting the U.S. National Academy of Science report, declared that there was a "causal relationship" between Agent Orange and a range of diseases, including several cancers. The judges failed to acknowledge "the relationship between the chemical and peripheral neuropathy, the disease most widespread among Agent Orange victims".[131]

text: Currently, veterans who provide evidence meeting VA requirements for service in Vietnam, and who can medically establish that anytime after this 'presumptive exposure' they developed any medical problems on the list of presumptive diseases, may receive compensation from the VA. Certain veterans who served in Korea and are able to prove they were assigned to certain specified around the DMZ during a specific time frame are afforded similar presumption.[132]

text: Laos[edit]

text: Parts of Laos were sprayed with Agent Orange during the Vietnam War.[133]

text: New Zealand[edit]

text: The use of Agent Orange has been controversial in New Zealand, because of the exposure of New Zealand troops in Vietnam and because of the production of Agent Orange for Vietnam and other users at an Ivon Watkins-Dow chemical plant in Paritutu, New Plymouth. There have been continuing claims, as yet unproven, that the suburb of Paritutu has also been polluted; see New Zealand in the Vietnam War.[134] There are cases of New Zealand soldiers developing cancers such as bone cancer but none has been scientifically connected to exposure to herbicides.[135]

text: Philippines[edit]

text: Herbicide persistence studies of Agents Orange and White were conducted in the Philippines.[136]

text: Johnston Atoll[edit]

text: The U.S. Air Force operation to remove Herbicide Orange from Vietnam in 1972 was named Operation Pacer IVY, while the operation to destroy the Agent Orange stored at Johnston Atoll in 1977 was named Operation Pacer HO. Operation Pacer IVY (InVentorY) collected Agent Orange in South Vietnam and removed it in 1972 aboard the ship MV Transpacific for storage on Johnston Atoll.[137] The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reports that 1,800,000 gallons of Herbicide Orange was stored at Johnston Island in the Pacific and 480,000 gallons at Gulfport in Mississippi.[138]

text: Research and studies were initiated to find a safe method to destroy the materials and it was discovered they could be incinerated safely under special conditions of temperature and dwell time.[138] However, these herbicides were expensive and the Air Force wanted to resell its surplus instead of dumping it at sea.[139] Among many methods tested, a possibility of salvaging the herbicides by reprocessing and filtering out the 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) contaminant with carbonized (charcoaled) coconut fibers. This concept was then tested in 1976 and a pilot plant constructed at Gulfport.[138]

text: From July to September 1977 during Operation Pacer HO (Herbicide Orange), the entire stock of Agent Orange from both Herbicide Orange storage sites at Gulfport and Johnston Atoll was subsequently incinerated in four separate burns in the vicinity of Johnson Island aboard the Dutch-owned waste incineration ship MT Vulcanus.[139]

text: As of 2004, some records of the storage and disposition of Agent Orange at Johnston Atoll have been associated with the historical records of Operation Red Hat.[140]

text: Okinawa, Japan[edit]

text: There have been dozens of reports in the press about use and/or storage of military formulated herbicides on Okinawa that are based upon statements by former U.S. service members that had been stationed on the island, photographs, government records, and unearthed storage barrels. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) has denied these allegations with statements by military officials and spokespersons, as well as a January 2013 report authored by Dr. Alvin Young that was released in April 2013.[137][141]

text: In particular, the 2013 report refuted articles written by journalist Jon Mitchell as well as a statement from "An Ecological Assessment of Johnston Atoll" a 2003 publication produced by the United States Army Chemical Materials Agency that states, "in 1972, the U.S. Air Force also brought about 25,000 55-gallon (208L) drums of the chemical, Herbicide Orange (HO) to Johnston Island that originated from Vietnam and was stored on Okinawa."[142] The 2013 report stated: "The authors of the [2003] report were not DoD employees, nor were they likely familiar with the issues surrounding Herbicide Orange or its actual history of transport to the Island." and detailed the transport phases and routes of Agent Orange from Vietnam to Johnston Atoll, none of which included Okinawa.[137]

text: Further official confirmation of restricted (dioxin containing) herbicide storage on Okinawa appeared in a 1971 Fort Detrick report titled "Historical, Logistical, Political and Technical Aspects of the Herbicide/Defoliant Program", which mentioned that the environmental statement should consider "Herbicide stockpiles elsewhere in PACOM (Pacific Command) U.S. Government restricted materials Thailand and Okinawa (Kadena AFB)."[143] The 2013 DoD report says that the environmental statement urged by the 1971 report was published in 1974 as "The Department of Air Force Final Environmental Statement", and that the latter did not find Agent Orange was held in either Thailand or Okinawa.[137][141]

text: Thailand[edit]

text: Agent Orange was tested by the United States in Thailand during the war in Southeast Asia. Buried drums were uncovered and confirmed to be Agent Orange in 1999.[145] Workers who uncovered the drums fell ill while upgrading the airport near Hua Hin District, 100 km south of Bangkok.[146]

text: Vietnam-era Veterans whose service involved duty on or near the perimeters of military bases in Thailand anytime between February 28, 1961, and May 7, 1975, may have been exposed to herbicides and may qualify for VA benefits.[147]

text: A declassified Department of Defense report written in 1973, suggests that there was a significant use of herbicides on the fenced-in perimeters of military bases in Thailand to remove foliage that provided cover for enemy forces.[147]

text: In 2013, VA determined that herbicides used on the Thailand base perimeters may have been tactical and procured from Vietnam, or a strong, commercial type resembling tactical herbicides.[147]

text: United States[edit]

text: The University of Hawaii has acknowledged extensive testing of Agent Orange on behalf of the United States Department of Defense in Hawaii along with mixtures of Agent Orange on Kaua'i Island in 1967–68 and on Hawaii Island in 1966; testing and storage in other U.S. locations has been documented by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.[148][149]

text: In 1971, the C-123 aircraft used for spraying Agent Orange were returned to the United States and assigned various East Coast USAF Reserve squadrons, and then employed in traditional airlift missions between 1972 and 1982. In 1994, testing by the Air Force identified some former spray aircraft as "heavily contaminated" with dioxin residue. Inquiries by aircrew veterans in 2011 brought a decision by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs opining that not enough dioxin residue remained to injure these post-Vietnam War veterans. On 26 January 2012, the U.S. Center For Disease Control's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry challenged this with their finding that former spray aircraft were indeed contaminated and the aircrews exposed to harmful levels of dioxin. In response to veterans' concerns, the VA in February 2014 referred the C-123 issue to the Institute of Medicine for a special study, with results released on January 9, 2015.[150][151]

text: In 1978, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suspended spraying of Agent Orange in National Forests.[152]

text: A December 2006 Department of Defense report listed Agent Orange testing, storage, and disposal sites at 32 locations throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, Thailand, Puerto Rico, Korea, and in the Pacific Ocean.[153] The Veteran Administration has also acknowledged that Agent Orange was used domestically by U.S. forces in test sites throughout the United States. Eglin Air Force Base in Florida was one of the primary testing sites throughout the 1960s.[154]

text: Cleanup programs[edit]

text: In February 2012, Monsanto agreed to settle a case covering Dioxin contamination around a plant in Nitro, West Virginia, that had manufactured Agent Orange. Monsanto agreed to pay up to $9 million for cleanup of affected homes, $84 million for medical monitoring of people affected, and the community's legal fees.[155][156]

text: On 9 August 2012, the United States and Vietnam began a cooperative cleaning up of the toxic chemical on part of Danang International Airport, marking the first time Washington has been involved in cleaning up Agent Orange in Vietnam. Danang was the primary storage site of the chemical. Two other cleanup sites the United States and Vietnam are looking at is Biên Hòa, in the southern province of Đồng Nai—a "hotspot" for dioxin—and Phù Cát airport in the central province of Bình Định, says U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam David Shear. According to the Vietnamese newspaper Nhân Dân, the U.S. government provided $41 million to the project, which will reduce the contamination level in 73,000 m³ of soil by late 2016.[157] Some 45,000 cubic meters were "cleaned", an equal amount began in October 2016 scheduled for completion in mid 2017.[158]

text: Due to the fact that destruction requires high temperatures (over 1000 degrees C), the destruction process is energy intensive.[159]