Review and Analysis: Evaluation of the Impacts and Consequences of Using Agricultural Herbicides as Military Chemical Weapons in Second Indochina War

The legacy of the human misery caused by the application of the herbicides including Agent Purple and Agent Orange contaminated with unknown amounts of dioxin TCDD and Agent Blue, the arsenic-based herbicide, sprayed over the jungles, rice fields, and hamlets of Vietnam is still haunting us today. Why did this happen? Could it have been prevented? Was it necessary United States military strategy? Was it an intentional decision to inflict this blight on the enemy soldiers and the Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Laotian civilians, to poison their land and cause generations of harm? Alternatively, was it an unpreventable accident in the march of military history? What patterns in the U.S. government’s thought process could be identified as the cause, which led to the decision to use these herbicides as tactical chemical weapons? If the introduction of herbicide (chemical) weapons had not been made, would the outcome of the Vietnam War and the Secret Wars in Laos and Cambodia have been any different? The objective of this treatise is to outline the role of world events and backgrounds and the role of the leaders, U.S. military, CIA, USDA, U.S. State Department, the U.S. President appointed Ambassadors to Vietnam and Laos, chemical companies, and President Diệm’s Republic of Vietnam (RVN) government and military. Their collective advice led to the decision to use herbicides as military and environmental chemical weapons in the Second Indochina War. Were the National interests achieved by U.S. military strategy in the RVN using herbicide weapons worth the long-term environmental and human health consequences in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos? Did it impact the outcome of the Second Indochina War?

United States Secret War in Laos: Long-Term Environmental and Human Health Impacts of the Use of Chemical Weapons

In 1959, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) operation, against the Pathet Lao insurgences and Viet Mien military troops and supply route, began. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was developed after the North Vietnam government and military decided to reunify South and North Vietnam. The People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) then connected the old trails leading from North Vietnam panhandle southward into eastern Laos, Cambodia and South Vietnam. Starting from Hanoi, the primary trail turned southwest into Laos and eastern Cambodia before branching into South Vietnam. Beginning in 1960s, the volume of traffic on the network of trails expanded significantly, but it still took more than a month’s march, by foot and bicycle, to travel from North to South Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh Trail traffic was impacted by repeatedly by Royal Laotian Air Force (RLAF), which was supported by US Air Force tactical herbicide spraying (Operation Ranch Hand program), and US Air Force bombing runs. By the late 1960s, the trail was improved and could accommodate heavy trucks in some sections and was used to supply the annual needs of over one hundred thousand regular PAVN troops active in South Vietnam. By 1974, the trail was a well-marked series of jungle roads (some of them paved) with underground support facilities such as hospitals, fuel-storage tanks, and supply caches with weapons. The Ho Chi Minh Trail was the major supply route for PAVN forces that overran Republic of Vietnam (RV) forces in 1975 and unified Vietnam. The primary objective of this paper is to determine the environmental and human health impacts of RLAF and US Air Force secret spraying of tactical herbicides on Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos.

Review and Analysis: United States Secret Wars in Cambodia: Long-Term Impacts and Consequences

The People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) decided to use conventional warfare to unify Vietnam. The United States military operation against the Ho Chi Minh Trail traffic began in 1959. The (PAVN) connected a series of old trails leading from North Vietnam to South Vietnam via Laos and Cambodia. In the 1960s the network of trails was expanded. Trail traffic was interdicted by repeated CIA (Air America) and US Air Force (Operation Ranch Hand) tactical herbicide spraying and bombing missions. During the late 1960s, the Khmer Rouge Army slowly grew in eastern Cambodia during a time when America was spraying and bombing the Ho Chi Minh Trail. On February 22, 1969, the PAVN launched a new offensive against American forces in South Vietnam from their sanctuaries in Cambodia. President Richard Nixon and Dr. Henry Kissinger, decided to spray and bomb Cambodia, a neutral country, to eliminate the PAVN sanctuary base camps. The damage and loss of life as a result of U.S. air campaign resulted in the insurgency (Khmer Rouge) being able to recruit civilian members. This created a dual effect of strengthening the popularity of the Khmer Rouge, led by Pol Pot, enabling him to overthrow the Khmer Republic in 1975. The primary objectives of this study are to determine the political impacts and consequences of: 1) the 1959 United States secret war on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Cambodia and 2) the 1969 President Nixon’s decision to destroy the PAVN bases hidden in the Cambodian jungles. These United States secret wars in Cambodia had long-lasting effects on Cambodian political, social, and economic stability.

Impacts of Forest Harvest on Active Carbon and Microbial Properties of a Volcanic Ash Cap Soil in Northern Idaho

Soil quality assessments are essential for determining impacts on belowground microbial community structure and function. We evaluated the suitability of active carbon (C), a rapid field test, as an indicator of soil biological quality in five paired forest stands (clear cut harvested 40 years prior and unharvested) growing on volcanic ash-cap soils in northern Idaho. Active C was compared with several traditional measures of soil microbial properties (microbial biomass, respiration, fungal hyphal biomass, bacterial number and biomass and PLFA community structure). Despite the significant differences in forest vegetation between paired stands, no differences in active C and only a few significant differences in microbial properties were detected. Total bacteria (microscope counts) and PLFA signatures (gram positive bacteria, gram negative bacteria, actinomycetes) were significantly higher in the managed stands. Our results indicate that either mineral soil biological properties in managed stands were relatively unaffected at the time of harvest or some biological recovery occurred 40 years later. Additionally, volcanic ash-cap soils in moist ecosystems could be highly resilient to the impacts of harvest operations and therefore few significant biological changes could be detected.

Nitrogen recovery and agronomic efficiency of forages with nitrogen fertilization under flooded condition

The cow-calf (Bos taurus) industry in subtropical United States and other parts of the world that depends almost totally on grazed pastures is facing several production constraints like changing climatic conditions and increasing cost of fertilizers, especially nitrogen (N). Particularly little is known about the response of forage species to the combined effect of water-logging and the addition of N. A two-year greenhouse study was conducted in 2008 and 2009 to determine i) the effect of flooding duration on N recovery and agronomic efficiency of bahiagrass (Paspalum notatum Fluegge) compared with two flooding tolerant forages, limpograss (Hemarthria altissima Poir), and maidencane (Panicum hematomon Schult) and ii) if N fertilization could mitigate the negative effect of flooding. Nitrogen recovery and agronomic efficiency varied significantly (P ≤ 0.001) among forage species. Averaged across levels of N, N recovery of bahiagrass and limpograss was reduced by about 41% and 56%, respectively after 84 d of continued flooding while N recovery of maidencane was slightly increase by about 5% between 0 and 84 d of flooding. Agronomic efficiencies of bahiagrass (41% to 26%) and limpograss (44% to 31%) were reduced by flooding while agronomic efficiency of maidencane was increased from 24% (no flooding) to 46% at 84 d of continued flooding. However, N recovery and agronomic efficiency of three forage species was positively affected by N fertilization. The overall N recovery of bahiagrass, limpograss, and maidencane ranged from 44% to 59%. Nitrogen fertilization could improve N recovery and agronomic efficiency of forage species under waterlogged condition.

Discussion of Influences on Snow Water Equivalent at Utah Snow Courses

Snow data collection systems in the western United States were originally designed to forecast water supply and may be subject to several sources of bias. In addition to climate change and weather modification effects, site-specific effects may be introduced from vegetation changes, site physical changes, measurement technique, and sensor changes. This paper examines changes in Utah＇s snowpack conditions over the past decade compared with all previous measurement years, focusing on the 15 snow courses with the longest observational record within the state of Utah. Although patterns in snowpack data consistent with those that would be expected due to temperature h as greater declines at lower elevations and latitudes--were not identified, snow water equivalent decreased at sites with significant increases in vegetation coverage. Additionally, we provide a list of 22 snow courses in Utah that are best-suited for long-term climate analysis.

Managing the Lower Mississippi River Landscape for Strategic Navigational and Flood Control

The Lower Mississippi River flows from the confluence of the Ohio River and Mississippi River at Cairo, Illinois into the Gulf of Mexico. Mississippi River and Ohio River pathway shifts have shaped and re-shaped the landscapes through which they flow and where their sediment-laden tributary waters co-mingle at the confluence on the voyage to the Gulf of Mexico. For much of their history, the lands adjacent to the Lower Mississippi River were bottomlands that flooded with the seasons unconstrained by human river training structures. Since 1717 European nations have fought over strategic navigational control of the Mississippi River. After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, the United States took controlled the Lower Mississippi River. During the Civil War, from 1861-1865, the Union and Confederate forces battled for navigational control of the Lower Mississippi River. The primary objective of this paper was to highlight how the strategic navigational and flooding control of the Lower Mississippi River and geological and landscape resources were responsible for the successful economic development of this rich historical region of North America.

Soil Pedon Carbon and Nitrogen Data for Alaska: An Analysis and Update

We combined C and N related pedon data from the USDA-NRCS National Cooperative Soil Survey Soil Characterization Database with data from the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) northern soils research program, representing 58 and 30 years of field work, respectively. Carbon and N data from 117 UAF pedons were added to 541 pedons from the USDA-NRCS data set for a total of 658. Missing carbon (C), nitrogen (N) and related data were added to nearly all of the USDA-NRCS Arctic region pedons from unpublished UAF data. We present relationships among soil parameters of the data set that are necessary for calculation of pedon soil organic C and N stores. These new relationships are necessary for better estimating missing soil bulk density (Db) from measured soil organic C by high-temperature combustion (SOCHTC) and for conversion of acid chromate reduction soil organic carbon (SOCACR) to SOCHTC. For the USDA-NRCS data, missing Db data were estimated and SOCACR corrected to SOCHTC using the new functional relationships developed. This allowed for pedon SOC and N stores to be calculated for 609 and 468 Alaska pedons respectively, the most available to-date. Additionally, functional relationships were developed for data within soil orders to estimate total SOCHTC and N stores in pedons with missing surface organic horizons where only thicknesses were known. These relationships are presented in order to fill-in missing data and to better define the existing data set for future use. Some 1904 missing Db data points and 1612 corrected SOCHTC data points were added to the total of 4240 points in the 609 pedons that constitute the updated dataset. When O-layer thickness functions developed here were used, SOC and N stores were calculated for an additional 137 and 184 pedons respectively.

Effect of Terrestrial LiDAR Point Sampling Density in Ephemeral Gully Characterization

Gully erosion can account for significant volumes of sediment exiting agricultural landscapes, but is difficult to monitor and quantify its evolution with traditional surveying technology. Scientific investigations of gullies depend on accurate and detailed topographic information to understand and evaluate the complex interactions between field topography and gully evolution. Detailed terrain representations can be produced by new technologies such as terrestrial LiDAR systems. These systems are capable of collecting information with a wide range of ground point sampling densities as a result of operator controlled factors. Increasing point density results in richer datasets at a cost of increased time needed to complete field surveys. In large research watersheds, with hundreds of sites being monitored, data collection can become costly and time consuming. In this study, the effect of point sampling density on the capability to collect topographic information was investigated at individual gully scale. This was performed through the utilization of semi-variograms to produce overall guiding principles for multi-temporal gully surveys based on various levels of laser sampling points and relief variation (low, moderate, and high). Results indicated the existence of a point sampling density threshold that produces little or no additional topographic information when exceeded. A reduced dataset was created using the density thresholds and compared to the original dataset with no major discrepancy. Although variations in relief and soil roughness can lead to different point sampling density requirements, the outcome of this study serves as practical guidance for future field surveys of gully evolution and erosion.

Invariance in the Seasonal Median Dates for Mono-Modal Monsoonal Rainfall Distribution over the Semi-Arid Ecotone of Sub-Saharan West Africa

Seasonal distribution of mono-modal, monsoonal rainfall across the semi-arid ecotone of sub-Saharan of West Africa is highly variable and unpredictable. The ever-present risk of drought and crop failure in this environment often results in food shortages that are met by emergency food aid. Humanitarian assistance planners would be better prepared for such interventions in a timely manner if they have reliable indicators that forewarn the impending failure of the rains. A good indicator would be a characteristic of the seasonal rainfall distribution that can be shown to be reasonably invariant over time and space. The objective of this study is to investigate whether such invariance existed for the seasonal median date (meaning the date when 50% of the seasonal total occurs). Such invariance is expected since the sun’s cyclic declination forces the advance and retreat of the Inter-tropical Front over West Africa. We examined the statistical properties of the seasonal median date for 1349 station-years of rainfall records for 30 rainfall stations in Burkina Faso and Niger with coordinates ranging from 9.88° to 18.5° north latitude and -4.77° to 13.2° longitude. The results showed that the median date was quite narrowly distributed over years with rather weak dependence on geographical coordinates. It can therefore be used as a reasonable ex-ante indicator of the success or failure of the rains as the rainy season progress.

Scientific case studies in land-use driven soil erosion in the central United States: Why soil potential and risk concepts should be included in the principles of soil health

Despite recent improvements in overall soil health gained through conservation agriculture, which has become a global priority in agricultural systems, soil and water-related externalities (e.g., wind and water erosion) continue to persist or worsen. Using an inductive, systems approach, we tested the hypothesis that such externalities persist due to expansion of cultivation onto areas unsuitable for sustained production. To test this hypothesis, a variety of data sources and analyses were used to uncover the land and water resource dynamics underlying noteworthy cases of soil erosion (either wind or water) and hydrological effects (e.g., flooding, shifting hydrographs) throughout the central United States. Given the evidence, we failed to reject the hypothesis that cultivation expansion is contributing to increased soil and water externalities, since significant increases in cultivation on soils with severe erosion limitations were observed everywhere the externalities were documented. We discuss the case study results in terms of land use incentives (e.g., policy, economic, and biophysical), developing concepts of soil security, and ways to utilize case studies such as those presented to better communicate the value of soil and water resource conservation. Incorporating the tenets of soil potential and soil risk into soil health evaluations and cultivation decision-making is needed to better match the soil resource with land use and help avoid more extreme soil and water-related externalities.

A paleosol classification with the inclusion of ancient arctic and subarctic region soils

Paleosol identification is simplified by considering soil as a natural body withinternal organization and a history of formation. This definition assumes that we accept paleosolsas soils. In a paleosol classification, inclusion of the cold region paleosols at the suborder levelplaces temperature (climate) in balance with the other soil forming factors. Because ancienttemperatures were not recorded, we use soil and parent material properties as proxies to identifyancient soils from Arctic and Subarctic regions. The properties include permafrost andcryoturbation features as well as those resulting from glacial processes. These features generallypersist through later cycles of soil formation as climate has changed. Examples both within andbeyond the glacial borders in Wyoming, Illinois, and Indiana, USA are presented and classifiedusing an arctic paleosol suborder modifier, the formative element.

Assessing habitat quality of the mountain nyala Tragelaphus buxtoni in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia

Populations of the endangered mountain nyala Tragelaphus buxtoni are significantly threatened by the loss of critical habitat. Population estimates are tentative, and information on the species＇ distribution and available habitat is required for for-mulating immediate management and conservation strategies. To support management decisions and conservation priorities, we integrated information from a number of small-scale observational studies, interviews and reports from multiple sources to define habitat parameters and create a habitat quality model for mountain nyala in the Bale Mountains. For our analysis, we used the FunConn model, an expertise-based model that considers spatial relationships （i.e., patch size, distance） between the species and vegetation type, topography and disturbance to create a habitat quality surface. The habitat quality model showed that approxi- mately 18,610 km^2 （82.7% of our study area） is unsuitable or poor habitat for the mountain nyala, while 2,857 km^2 （12.7%） and 1,026 km^2 （4.6%） was ranked as good or optimal habitat, respectively. Our results not only reflected human induced habitat deg-radation, but also revealed an extensive area of intact habitat on the remote slopes of the Bale Mountain＇s southern and southeast- ern escarpments. This study provides an example of the roles that expert knowledge can still play in modem geospatial modeling of wildlife habitat. New geospatial tools, such as the FunConn model, are readily available to wildlife managers and allow them to perform spatial analyses with minimal software, data and training requirements. This approach may be especially useful for species that are obscure to science or when field surveys are not practical .

Soil health: model programs in the USA

Population growth, increasing drought, and natural resources degradation are significant global issues.Fortunately, management practices to improve soil health can address many of these issues in ways that are both good forthe farmer and the environment. In 2012, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Natural ResourcesConservation Service initiated its“Unlock the Secrets in the Soil” campaign to assist farmers and ranchers with adoptingsoil health systems. Other notable efforts at the federal level include research and education projects by USDAAgricultural Research Service, National Instituite of Food and Agriculture, and Sustainable Agriculture Research andEducation program. The importance of improving soil health is also recognized far beyond federal government programs.The Soil Health Institute, a nonprofit charity, was established to safeguard and enhance the vitality and productivity of soilthrough scientific research and adoption. Crop commodity organizations are promoting soil health, such as the Soil HealthPartnership. The Nature Conservancy is helping companies and private landowners incorporate soil health into theirsustainability efforts. Such efforts are supported by the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, as well as by someof the leading global food companies such as General Mills. These are just a few of the many efforts to improve soil healthin the USA. The significance of the expanding global population, natural resource challenges, and responsibilities tocurrent and future generations truly make enhancing soil health a global imperative.