Film of US Soldiers spraying Agent Orange defoliant onto a riverbank without protective equipment

"V.C. Weed Killer" [8-11 February 1969] - from the Michael Sheets Collection of the Vietnam Center and Archive at Texas Tech University.

Weed Killer Knocks out VC's Riverbank Ambush Sites, South Vietnam (Official Department of Defense motion picture film by the U. S. Army under the direction of the MACV Office of Information. Photography by PH1 Palm and SP5's Sylvia, Morgan & Watson: Sound by SP4 Lowe.) Heavy vegetation along the banks of the Saigon River has long afforded the Viet Cong a convenient hiding place for ambushing river traffic. River Patrol Craft of the Vietnamese 28th River Assault Group, patrolling the river north of Phu Cuong City, above Saigon, have been fired upon from these heavily matted trees and bushes which provided excellent concealment for the enemy. Early this year, men of the 25th Infantry Division and the American Naval Advisors to the Vietnamese River Assault Group took action to reduce this type of harassment by eliminating the foliage. The defoliant is a mixture of commercial weed killer and river water, sprayed from a river boat. A high-pressure water pump, suction hoses, fire hoses and nozzles, plus large quantities of the weed killer in 55 gallon drums, were placed aboard a landing craft. With other boats guarding them, men on the landing craft sprayed bushes and trees along the river for a distance of 60 yards or more back from the shoreline. Within a few days, the effects of the defoliant were apparent. In two to three weeks, the sprayed areas were dry enough to burn off, depriving the VC of their riverside concealment and allowing the allied boats to traffic the river with less fear of ambush.

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