It’s all about branding. The government came up with the name “agent orange” because of an orange stripe on the barrels. Sure they did... who painted the orange stripe on the barrels? Orange really makes it sound nontoxic... no wonder the troops were so nonchalant about using the barrels for showers and polluting the country and themselves. If it had been been called “toxic death” the chemical companies would have had a harder time convincing everyone it was safe.

Another legacy of the war are 80 million unexploded bombs in Laos. Most of the farmland in the country is too dangerous to cultivate. The tiny bomblettes came from cluster bombs which spread them over large areas. They should be called cluster fuck bombs. They are now trying to remove them but it will take many years.