Agent Green

The name comes from the green stripe painted on the barrels to identify the contents.

Agent Green was only used between 1962 and 1964, during the early "testing" stages of the spraying program.

[1] Agent Green's only active ingredient was 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T), one of the common phenoxy herbicides of the era.

Even prior to Operation Ranch Hand (1962-1971) it was known[2][3][4][5][6][7] that a dioxin, 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (TCDD), is produced as a side product of the manufacture of 2,4,5-T, and was thus present in any of the herbicides that used it.

During much of the fighting in the Vietnam War, chemical agents were used by the United States to defoliate the landscape.