Agent Orange was a poisonous chemical used in the Vietnam War. The U.S. military sprayed Agent Orange over forested areas to kill trees and expose anyone who might be concealed there.
Agent Orange was one of a group of herbicides the U.S. military used during the Vietnam War as part of a program of defoliation, the killing of trees and other plants. In addition to exposing any Viet Cong troops hiding in the forests, the program deliberately destroyed the country's food crops. Agent Orange caused serious, lingering health problems for millions of Vietnamese citizens and many U.S. veterans, and caused birth defects in many of the children of those exposed.