Blog Post #5



The vegetation in Vietnam is crucial to the culture of the citizens and the native tribes. The heavy canopies shield the thin soil layer from the heavy monsoons during the season. The decay and decomposition of the plants helps to regenerate new growth and life that continue the cycle of prosperity. The massive growth of the rice crop is also beneficial to the environment and to the people. Due to the immense cultivation of rice, the habitat for the native mosquitoes has been wiped out almost completely which then led to a drastic decrease in malaria within Vietnam. The natural and cultivated vegetation benefited the people of Vietnam in many ways.

          Mao Zedong had said that the guerrilla were the fish among the peasants that were the water. The US felt that the only way to kill the fish was to get rid of the water. Many US Army officials views oriental life as having a lesser value than western life. This made it easy to drop over 11 million tons of bombs in Vietnam. The result of these bombing were truly catastrophic for not only the people, but also the environment. 

         About 44% of Vietnam's total vegetation was affected by the bombings and Agent Orange during the war. Roughly 65% of rubber plantations and coconut groves were destroyed in Southern Vietnam. Plans to set entire forests ablaze were stopped in their tracks due to moisture and wet conditions. If the intended forests had been burned, the statistics for destroyed foliage would be much higher. The affects of the herbicides and poisons lasted well after they had been sprayed. Plants would loose foliage for weeks after the spraying. Some forests which had multiple layered canopies were sprayed more than once, increasing the visibility for aerial view as well as increasing the overall long lasting devastation. Due to the elimination of natural habitat and poisoning of water, many birds and fish had died out or left the area, severely affecting the ecosystem and the diets of the native peoples surrounding the area. 

          Today Vietnam is considered one of the most impoverished  countries. This is largely due to the damage that was received during the Vietnam war to the environment which destroyed the majority of their staple crops and trading goods. Without the ability to trade and export goods that were once grown naturally in the area, Vietnamese economy tanked and sent the people into poverty even more so than they already were after the war. Biological warfare can be considered to be the most dangerous warfare aside from nuclear warfare, considering that it not only destroys growth and poisons life immediately, but the affects can be felt for generations into the future.