Scorched Earth

Praise

“I consider Scorched Earth to be the Silent Spring of chemical warfare in Vietnam, a powerful clarion call [that brings together] scientific evidence, passionate argument, Vietnamese interviews and documentation, review of the class action suits … and new and little known evidence gathered by Vietnamese scholars … to form one coherent argument.” —Dr. John Marciano, Vietnam scholar, and professor emeritus, State University of New York–Cortland

“A fascinating and compelling book on the effects on the Vietnamese people of the Agent Orange defoliation campaign during the Vietnam War, a personal, impassioned account on the part of the victims, a fascinating and at times shocking tale of an important and unresolved episode in American history.” —Dr. Michael Viola, director, Medicine for Peace, and retired chair, oncology department, State University of New York–Stonybrook

“To our everlasting shame, current controversy over the Vietnam war focuses on the question ‘Could we have won?’ The real question should be ‘What have we done?’ Focusing on one central element, chemical warfare, Wilcox’s harrowing study spells out the record with shattering clarity, relying on personal testimony, visual imagery, and cold fact. No decent person can fail to be appalled, or to be inspired to do we can to help the victims: the suffering people and the ravaged land.” —Noam Chomsky

“Scorched Earth sears the conscience through a gifted writer’s devotion to justice.” —Dick Hughes, Shoeshine Boys Project-Vietnam

“For as long as I’ve known Fred Wilcox his name has almost been synonymous with the effects of Agent Orange. Over those years, his grief has become a passion for justice to the countless victims of this devastating herbicide, or ‘instrument of chemical warfare.’ Scorched Earth is a masterpiece emerging from his suffering with others all these years … May Fred’s work bear fruit in a more enlightened American populace that says a resounding ‘NO!’ to further experimental munitions creating further victims of war.” —Elizabeth McAllister