Vietnam War Bibliography:

Agent Orange, Other Chemicals, and Ecological Issues

Advisory Committee on Health-Related Effects of Herbicides. Transcript of Proceedings, June 11, 1979. A hearing, the exact nature of which is not clear to me, before the Veterans Administration. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in three parts: pp. 1-49, pp. 50-99, pp. 100-143.

The Agent Orange Scientific Task Force (Richard W. Clapp, M.P.H., ScD., et al., Human Health Effects Associated with Exposure to Herbicides and/or Their Associated Contaminants - Chlorinated Dioxins: A Review of the Scientific Literature. April 1990. The task force was associated with the American Legion, Vietnam Veterans of America, and the National Veterans Legal Services Project. It found that there was a significant correlation between herbicide exposure and several health problems. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in four parts: pp. i-vii, 1-34, pp. 35-75, pp. back matter, pp. back matter.

Air Force Health Study: An Epidemiologic Investigation of Health Effects in Air Force Personnel Following Exposure to Herbicides. In 1978, Congress directed the Air Force to do a study, at first called the Ranch Hand Study, of the effects of Agent Orange on the personnel of Operation RANCH HAND, who suffered a considerable exposure to Agent Orange while spraying the stuff in Indochina. Much of the work was done by private contractors, mainly the Science Applications International Corporation, of McLean, Virginia. The organization responsible for the Air Force side of the project was described initially as the Epidemiology Division, USAF School of Aerospace Medicine, Human Systems Division (AFSC); later as the Epidemiology Research Division, Armstrong Laboratory, Human Systems Division (AFSC). Under both names it was located at at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas. Many of the reports of this project used to be available on the Internet on an Air Force web site, but I am not sure they still are. Many are now available in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University. A partial listing:

Robert Allen, The Dioxin War: Truth and Lies About a Perfect Poison. Pluto Press, 2004. 208 pp.

Rod Barton, The Weapons Detective: The Inside Story of Australia's Top Weapons Inspector. Melbourne, Australia: Black Inc. Agenda, 2006. x, 278 pp. Most of this deals with Barton's investigations of Iraqi WMD programs, but one chapter (pp. 18-42) deals with his investigations from 1980 to 1984 of allegations that chemical agents commonly known as "Yellow Rain" were being used in Laos and Cambodia. His conclusion, that the allegations of chemical warfare were unfounded, looks very convincing.

Russell Betts and Frank Denton, An Evaluation of Chemical Crop Destruction in Vietnam. Santa Monica: Rand, October 1967. RM-5445-1-ISA/ARPA. xv, 23 pp. Expresses doubts that crop destruction was helping the war effort. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

(Jean Marie Briantais?), Les massacres: la guerre chimique en Asia du Sud-Est. Paris: Maspero, 1970. 136 pp.

Frank Browning and Dorothy Forman, eds., preface by Gunnar Myrdal, introduction by Richard Falk, The Wasted Nations: Report of the International Commission of Enquiry into United States Crimes in Indochina, June 20-25, 1971. New York: Harper & Row, 1972. Hearings held in Oslo, Norway.

Bui Thi Phuong-Lan, "When the forest became the enemy and the legacy of American herbicidal warfare in Vietnam." Ph.D. dissertation, History, Harvard, 2003. vi, 296 pp. AAT 3092463. The full text is available online if you are browsing the Internet from an institution, such as Clemson University, that has a subscription to ProQuest "Dissertations and Theses: Full Text."

Paul Cecil, Herbicidal Warfare. New York: Praeger Special Studies, 1986. xiii, 289 pp. Cecil was a pilot in Operation RANCH HAND. This is apparently a revised version of Cecil's Ph.D. dissertation "Ranch Hand: Air Force Herbicide Operations in Southeast Asia" (American History, Texas A&M University, 1984), parts of which (about 131 pages, chosen out of a considerably longer work) have been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in three parts: front matter and pp. 1-99 (about half the pages),   pp. 105-170 (about 3/4 of the pages),   and almost all of pp. 176-204, plus some of the front matter and early pages that were missing from the first section above.

Committee on the Disposition of the Air Force Health Study, Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice, Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, Disposition of the Air Force Health Study. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press, 2006. x, 264 pp. Accessible online.

Committee on the Effects of Herbicides in Vietnam, National Research Council, The Effects of Herbicides in Vietnam, Part A--Summary and Conclusions. Washington: National Academy of Sciences, 1974. 398 pp. (Also available from NTIS). The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in eight parts: front matter and pp. S-1 to I-9,   pp. I-10 to II-46 (includes details on individual herbicides),   pp. II-47 to III-30,   pp. III-31 to IV-40,   pp. IV-41 to IV-90,   pp. IV-91 to V-15,   pp. V-16 to VII-42 (most of the section "Effects on Humans" is here), and pp. VII-43 to E-21 (includes the "Statements of Exception" in which some of the authors expressed reservations about sections of the report).

Committee on the Effects of Herbicides in Vietnam, National Research Council, The Effects of Herbicides in Vietnam, Part B: Working Papers. Washington: National Academy of Sciences, 1974. The papers, which can be ordered from NTIS, include:

Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides, Institute of Medicine, Veterans and Agent Orange: Health Effects of Herbicides used in Vietnam. Washington: National Academy Press, 1994. xx, 812 pp. The publisher has made it possible to purchase a bound copy over the Internet, or to read it online for free.

Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides [David Tollerud, chairman], Institute of Medicine, Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 1996. Washington: National Academy Press, 1996. xviii, 365 pp. The publisher has made it possible to purchase a bound copy over the Internet, or to read it online for free.

Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides, Institute of Medicine, Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 1996: Summary and Research Highlights. Washington: National Academy Press, 1997. xx, 36 pp. Read it online for free.

Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides, Institute of Medicine, Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 1998. Washington: National Academy Press, 1999. xii, 612 pp. The publisher has made it possible to purchase a bound copy over the Internet, or to read it online for free.

Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides, Institute of Medicine, Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2000. Washington: National Academy Press, 2001. xviii, 604 pp. The publisher has made it possible to purchase a bound copy over the Internet, or to read it online for free.

Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides, Institute of Medicine, Veterans and Agent Orange: Herbicide/Dioxin Exposure and Acute Myelogenous Leukemia in the Children of Vietnam Veterans. Washington: National Academy Press, 2002. xii, 30 pp. The publisher has made it possible to purchase a bound copy over the Internet, or to read it online for free.

Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides, Institute of Medicine, Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2002. Washington: National Academy Press, 2003. xiv, 421 pp. The publisher has made it possible to purchase a bound copy over the Internet, or to read it online for free.

Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides, Institute of Medicine, Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2004. Washington: National Academy Press, 2005. xvi, 664 pp. The publisher has made it possible to purchase a bound copy over the Internet, or to read it online for free.

Committee to Review the Health Effects in Vietnam Veterans of Exposure to Herbicides, Institute of Medicine, Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 2010. Washington: National Academy Press, 2012. xxx, 806 pp. Available in print and online.

Dioxin, Agent Orange and Human Health. Midland, Michigan: Dow Chemical Company, April 1984. v, 71 pp. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in two parts: Front matter and pp. 1-45, and pp. 46-71.

Do Hoa Dang and Nguyen Thanh Huu, eds., Bao dam hoa hoc trong mot so tran danh trong cuoc khang chien chong My, cuu nuoc, 1965-1975. Hanoi: NXB Quan Doi Nhan Dan, 1995.

The Effects of Modern Weapons on the Human Environment in Indochina. Stockholm: International Commission of Enquiry into U.S. Crimes in Indochina, (1972?). Documents presented at a hearing organized by the International Commission in cooperation with the Stockholm Conference on Vietnam and the Swedish Committee for Vietnam, Stockholm, June 2-4, 1972. The preface, by Gunnar Myrdal, chairman of the commission, is remarkably hostile to U.S. policy. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in four parts: Gunnar Myrdal, Hans Franck, Arthur H. Westing, John H.E. Fried, John H.E. Fried, J. B. Neilands, Fred Branfman, Fred Branfman, E.W. Pfeiffer, Arthur H. Westing, Matthew S. Meselson, et. al., Arthur H. Westing, and Don Luce.

D. Hank Ellison, Chemical Warfare During the Vietnam War: Riot Control Agents in Combat. New York and London: Routledge, 2011. 202 pp.

Diane Niblack Fox, "'One Significant Ghost': Agent Orange Narratives of Trauma, Survival, and Responsibility." Ph.D. dissertation, Anthropology, University of Washington, 2007. vii, 292 pp. AAT 3252855. Based on interviews conducted in three provinces, one each in northern, central, and southern Vietnam. I have only taken a brief glance at this, but it looks quite good.

Lois Marie Gibbs and the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste, Dying from Dioxin: A Citizen's Guide to Reclaiming our Health and Rebuilding Democracy. Boston: South End Press, 1995. xxxii, 361 pp. Deals more with dioxin in the US than with Vietnam.

David I. Goldman, "The Generals and the Germs: The Army Leadership's Response to Nixon's Review of Chemical and Biological Warfare Policies in 1969." Journal of Military History 73:2 (April 2009), pp. 531-569. This says little about the use of chemicals in Vietnam, but readers interested in that topic will find it useful for its picture of the way chemical warfare issues were discussed inside the U.S. government in the 1960s.

Michael Gough, Dioxin, Agent Orange: The Facts. New York: Plenum Press, 1986. 289 pp.

Philip Jones Griffiths, Agent Orange: "Collateral Damage" in Vietnam. London: Trolley, 2003. 174 pp. A lot of photos of deformed children.

Billy Hall, Bulletproof in Vietnam. Bloomington, IN: AuthorHouse, 2009. v, 217 pp.

Caroline D. Harnly, Agent Orange and the Vietnam Veteran: An Annotated Bibliography. Monticello, IL: Vance Bibliographies, 1985. 160 pp.

Caroline D. Harnly, Agent Orange and Vietnam: An Annotated Bibliography. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press, 1988. xii, 401 pp.

Headquarters 1st Infantry Division, Office of the Chemical Officer, "Operational Report on Activities and Lessons Learned," 31 January 1968. Covers the period from 1 November 1967 to 31 January 1968. Quite a lot of information about dropping drums of CS; making fougasses; using the E63 Manpack Personnel Detector (MPD), mounted on the skids of helicopters, on Bloodhound missions; defoliation missions spraying Agent Blue from UH-1 helicopters to destroy rice crops. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University.

Health Committee (Steve Chadwick, chair), New Zealand House of Representatives, Inquiry into the exposure of New Zealand defence personnel to Agent Orange and other defoliant chemicals during the Vietnam War and any health effects of that exposure, and transcripts of evidence. Wellington, New Zealand: House of Representatives, 2004. 297 pp.

Seymour M. Hersh, "Our Chemical War." New York Review of Books, 10:8 (April 25, 1968), pp.31-36.

Seymour M. Hersh, "Poison Gas in Vietnam." New York Review of Books, 10:9 (May 9, 1968), pp. 33-38. The main focus is on CS, Adamsite, and similar agents.

Hoi nan nhan chat doc da cam/dioxin Viet Nam, Dioxin, noi dau nhan loai: luong tri va hanh dong. Hanoi: NXB Quan Doi Nhan Dan, 2005. 588 pp.

Patrick Hogan, Silent Spring: Deadly Autumn of the Vietnam War. Euphrata, PA: Whatnot Enterprises, 2019. xv, 198 pp. Hogan served in Vietnam as an Army sergeant.

John Gerard Hopkins, "Public Health Politics and Agent Orange." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1986. AAT 3027454.

Charlie Hubbs, "Cowboy Zero One." n.p, n.d. 138 pp. Hubbs commanded C flight, 12 Air Commando Squadron, 1966-1967. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project, at Texas Tech University, in three parts: front matter and pp. 1-28,   pp. 29-61,   pp. 62-98, and pp. 99-138.

Rebecca Lynn Katz, "Yellow Rain Revisited: Lessons Learned for the Investigation of Chemical and Biological Weapons Allegations." Ph.D. dissertation, Political Science, Princeton University, 2005. AAT 3161897. xiii, 337 pp. The full text is available online if you are browsing the Internet from an institution, such as Clemson University, that has a subscription to ProQuest "Dissertations and Theses: Full Text."

Charles Kelley, Vietnam's Orange, White and Blue Rain: Agents and Weapons of Mass Destruction. El Dorado Hills, CA: Corps Productions, 2005. 328 pp.

Gregory Paul Korgeski, "Psychological, Neuropsychological and Medical Correlates of Self-Reported and Objective Ratings of Herbicide Exposure among Vietnam Veterans." Ph.D. dissertation, Clinical Psychology, University of Minnesota, 1981. 157 pp. AAT 8211495. The abstract of this one looks quite good.

Le Cao Dai, Agent Orange in the Vietnam War, History and Consequences. Ha Noi: Vietnam Red Cross Society, 2000.

John Lewallen, Ecology of Devastation: Indochina. Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1971. 179 pp.

Susan B. Martin, "Norms, Military Utility, and the Use/Non-use of Weapons: The Case of Anti-plant and Irritant Agents in the Vietnam War," Journal of Strategic Studies, 39:3 (2016), pp. 321-64.

Edwin Martini, Agent Orange: History, Science, and the Politics of Uncertainty. University of Massachusetts Press, 2012. 328 pp.

Edwin A. Martini, "Incinerating Agent Orange: Operations Pacer HO, Pacer IVY, and the Rise of Environmentalist Thiking." Journal of Military History, 76:3 (July 2012), pp. 809-36. How the United States disposed of its stockpile of Agent Orange, after its use was banned in Vietnam.

Edwin A. Martini, "Hearts, Minds, and Herbicides: The Politics of the Chemical War in Vietnam," Diplomatic History, 37:1 (January 2013), pp. 58-84.

Colonel Lloyd G. Miller, USAF, "The Use of Chemicals in Stability Operations" Military Review, December 1966 (vol. XLVI, no. 12), pp. 43-47. Incapacitating agents, herbicides, etc.

J.B. Neilands, G.H. Orians, E.W. Pfeiffer, Alje Vennema, & Arthur Westing, Harvest of Death: Chemical Warfare in Vietnam and Cambodia. New York: Macmillan, 1972. xvi, 304 pp.

Gerald Nicosia, Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans' Movement. New York: Crown, 2001. xi, 689 pp. There is a lot here on VVAW, but also significant attention to PTSD, Agent Orange, the Veterans Administration, and other topics.

John Allen Palen, "Dioxin in the news: From ecologism to 'enduring values' in press coverage of a science/technology controversy." Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1991. AAT 9216343. Looks at the way the New York Times and other publications have covered controversies involving dioxin, including Vietnam War herbicide use.

Merle L. Pribbenow, "'Yellow Rain': Lessons from an Earlier WMD Controversy." International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 19:4 (Winter 2006), pp. 737-745. Pribbenow, as a CIA officer, was assigned during the 1980s to investigate whether Vietnamese military forces in Laos and Cambodia were using a chemical weapon commonly referred to as "yellow rain." He concluded they were not. The article is very interesting, and completely convincing.

Rand Vietnam Interview Series H -- Villagers' Impressions of Herbicide Operations. - Interview repts. for 1966. Available through NTIS. 43 interviews.

Joel David Rollins, "An Analysis of Propaganda in the Yellow Rain Controversy." M.A Thesis, Communications and Public Address, University of North Texas, 1989. AAT 1336772. iii, 237 pp. The full text is available online if you are browsing the Internet from an institution, such as Clemson University, that has a subscription to ProQuest "Dissertations and Theses: Full Text."

Anthony J. Russo, A Statistical Analysis of the U.S. Crop Spraying Program in South Vietnam. RM-5450-1-ISA/ARPA. Santa Monica: Rand, October 1967. xvii, 34 pp. Argues that crop destruction harmed the peasants more than it denied rice to Viet Cong military forces. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University.

Indai Sajor and Le Thuy Nham Tuyet, eds., Agent Orange: Impact of Chemical Warfare on the Reproductive Rights of Women and Men in Vietnam. Quezon City, Philippines: Asian Center for Women's Human Rights / Hanoi: Research Centre for Gender, Family and Environment in Development, 2000. xiv, 165 pp.

Michel Sakka, Vietnam, la guerre chimique et biologique, un peuple sert de champ d'expérience. Paris: Éditions sociales, 1967. 144 pp.

Peter H. Schuck, Agent Orange on Trial: Mass Toxic Disasters in the Courts. Harvard University Press, 1986. ix, 347 pp. pb Harvard University Press, 1987. ix, 363 pp.

Wilbur J. Scott, The Politics of Readjustment: Vietnam Veterans Since the War. New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1993. xxiii, 285 pp. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 2012. xxiii, 285 pp. Also published (I don't know whether there were any revisions) as Vietnam Veterans Since the War: The Politics of PTSD, Agent Orange, and the National Memorial. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2004. xxiii, 293 pp.

Peter Sills, Toxic War: The Story of Agent Orange. Nashville, TN: Vanderbilt University Press, 2014. x, 285 pp.

Jeanne Mager Stellman, "The Extent and Patterns of Usage of Agent Orange and other Herbicides in Vietnam," Nature, 4/17/03, pp. 681-87. Higher than previous estimates both of amount of spraying done and concentration of dioxin in herbicide sprayed.

Marilyn M. Tycer, Invisible Children: The Third Generation of Agent Orange Victims in Vietnam. n.p., 2009. Consists mostly of photographs and art.

William F. Warren, A Review of the Herbicide Program in South Vietnam (U). Scientific Advisory Group Working Paper No. 10-68. Commander in Chief Pacific Scientific Advisory Group, August 1968. iii, pp. plus appendices. The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University, in two parts: Front matter and pp. 1-45,   and pp. 46-59, and appendices.

Charles Waugh and Huy Lien, eds., Family of Fallen Leaves: Stories of Agent Orange by Vietnamese Writers. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2010. 179 pp. A mixture of fiction and nonfiction. Foreword by John Balaban.

Barry Weisberg, ed., Ecocide in Indochina: The Ecology of War. San Francisco: Canfield Press, 1970. x, 241 pp.

Arthur H. Westing, Ecological Consequences of the Second Indochina War. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell, 1976. A SIPRI (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) Monograph. x, 119 pp. Contains useful information about munitions tonnages, CS, etc., not just herbicides.

Arthur H. Westing, ed., Herbicides in War: The Long-term Ecological and Human Consequences. Philadelphia: Taylor & Francis, 1984. xiv, 210 pp.

Thomas Whiteside, The Withering Rain: America's Herbicidal Folly. New York: Dutton, 1971. Based on articles previously published in the New Yorker. Whiteside's reporting is said to have been quite influential.

Thomas Whiteside, "Defoliation." New Yorker, February 7, 1970, pp. 32-69(?). The text has been placed on-line in the Virtual Vietnam Archive of the Vietnam Project at Texas Tech University.

Fred A. Wilcox, Waiting for an Army to Die: The Tragedy of Agent Orange. New York: Vintage, 1983. xv, 222 pp.

Fred A. Wilcox, Scorched Earth: Legacies of Chemical Warfare in Vietnam. Seven Stories Press, 2011. Introduction by Noam Chomsky.

Jean R. Williams, Cry in the Wilderness: Guinea Pigs of Vietnam. Nambour, Queensland, Australia: Homecoming Publications, 1995. vi, 257 pp.

A.L. Young and G.M. Reggiani, eds., Agent Orange and its Associated Dioxin: Assessment of a Controversy. Amsterdam, NY: Elsevier, 1988. xii, 334 pp.

David Zierler, "Inventing Ecocide: Agent Orange, Antiwar Protest and Environmental Destruction in Vietnam." Ph.D. dissertation, Temple University, 2008. vi, 308 pp. AAT 3319994.

David Zierler, The Invention of Ecocide: Agent Orange, Vietnam, and the Scientists Who Changed the Way We Think about the Environment. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011. 252 pp.

 

The "Tailwind" Affair

Operation Tailwind was a raid by a SOG hatchet team of 16 Americans and 110 Montagnards against the Ho Chi Minh Trail in southern Laos, beginning on September 11, 1970. On June 7, 1998, CNN broadcast a special program, claiming that one of the main goals of the operation had been to kill American defectors who were working with the Communists along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and that during the withdrawal of the hatchet team, sarin nerve gas had been used against the PAVN forces closing in on the hatchet team. This broadcast did not, as has often been asserted, actually claim that nerve gas had been used against American defectors. The allegations about Operation Tailwind were simultaneously published in Time magazine. The claims that American defectors had been killed, and that nerve gas had been used, are generally believed to have been unfounded. Some of the people involved were fired by CNN.

"Valley of Death," documentary broadcast on CNN, June 7, 1998.

April Oliver and Peter Arnett, "Did the U.S. Drop Nerve Gas?" Time magazine, June 15, 1998. The issue containing this story hit newsstands the day after the CNN documentary had been broadcast. Time later retracted the story, but continued to make the text available online, marked as having been retracted, in what I regard as a commendable gesture of transparency.

Neil Hickey, "Ten Mistakes that Led to the Great CNN/Time Fiasco." Columbia Journalism Review, 37:3 (Sept-Oct 1998), pp. 26-.

Jane Kirtley, "Tailwind Lessons", American Journalism Review, 24:4 (May 2002), p. 70.

Jerry Lembcke, CNN's Tailwind Tale: Inside Vietnam's Last Great Myth. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. xviii, 217 pp.

John Stryker Meyer, SOG Chronicles, Volume I. Oceanside, CA: SOG Publishing, 2017. 210 pp. Nine of the twelve chapters deal with Operation Tailwind,

April Oliver, "The Wrong Lessons." American Journalism Review, July-August 1999, pp. 52-55. April Oliver, one of the producers of the documentary, was fired by CNN during the storm of controvery over it. She defends the program.

April Oliver and Jack Smith, "Smoke Screen." In These Times, September 6, 1998, pp. 10-? Two of the producers of the CNN story on Tailwind, who were fired after the broadcast of the program, defend it.

Susan Paterno, "An Ill Tailwind." American Journalism Review, September 1998, pp. 22-31, 80. Very critical of the CNN program.

Barry Pencek, Operation Tailwind: Memoirs of a Secret Battle in a Secret War. Self-published, 2022. 339 pp. Pencek was a Cobra gunship pilot who flew in suppoort of the operation.

John L. Plaster, SOG: A Photo History of the Secret Wars. Boulder, CO: Paladin, 2000.  viii, 485 pp. Chapter 17 (pp. 353-68) deals with Operation Tailwind.

Perry Smith, "The Lessons of Tailwind." American Journalism Review, 20:10 (December 1998), pp. 45-47. Very critical of the CNN program.

Robert Van Buskirk and Fred Bauer, Tailwind: A True Story. Waco, TX: Word Books, 1983. 216 pp. pb Dallas, TX: Acclaimed Books, n.d. 216 pp. The first part of the book contained the story (some names changed) of Operation TAILWIND, a raid into Laos by a SOG hatchet team in September 1970, in which Van Buskirk participated. There were a bunch of obvious inaccuracies and gross implausibilities. I particularly like the 120mm Gatling gun on the C-130 gunship, and the claim that there would have been no chance of getting back to the Vietnamese border on foot because the team was "probably a good 200 miles into Laos" (p. 48). 200 miles from the Vietnamese border would have been well into Thailand.
        In June 1998, Van Buskirk appeared on a CNN documentary about TAILWIND, testifying that killing American defectors had been a goal of the operation. But there had not been anything about defectors in Van Buskirk's book. The documentary also said that sarin nerve gas had been used in the operation. Van Buskirk's book did say that gas had been dropped to cover the withdrawal of the team, but did not suggest sarin or any nerve gas; the description in the book clearly would have represented Adamsite (DM), an incapacitating agent that caused intense nausea, occasionally used by U.S. forces during the war.

Veterans' Administration Publications

Congressional Committee Documentation: Herbicides

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Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020, 2022, Edwin E. Moise. This document may be reproduced only by permission. Revised November 9, 2022.