Merry Band of Vietnam War Era Retirees: Creation, Mission, Findings, and Continuing Research

Abstract

This review examines the development and continuing scientific role of the Merry Band of Vietnam War Era Retirees, an independent research group created to investigate the environmental and human-health consequences of tactical herbicide use during the Vietnam War and the Second Indochina War. While the use and impacts of Agent Orange and dioxin TCDD have been extensively documented, the production, transport, application, and environmental fate of other tactical herbicides, including the arsenic-based Agent Blue, received much less attention for decades. The research portfolio discussed in this review includes 27 refereed journal articles and three books developed through collaboration among Vietnam veterans, Vietnam Era veterans, soil and agricultural scientists, medical experts, media specialists, and other contributors. The research examined chemical-warfare landscapes in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, the Panama Canal Zone, the United States, and Canada, with particular attention to contaminated soils and sediments, freshwater systems, industrial production sites, military and civilian exposure, food production, and the long-term persistence of dioxin TCDD and arsenic. This article describes how the group was created, the challenges encountered in investigating politically sensitive and sometimes previously classified material, and the role of fact checking, interdisciplinary expertise, open-access publication, and independent funding. Although the first organizational phase of the Merry Band research program has been completed, the scientific network and many of its research questions remain active.