Did You Know That The British Used ‘Chemical Warfare’ During The Malayan Emergency?
The British forcess use of a herbicide and defoliant, a version of Agent Orange, during the Malayan Emergency inspired the US forces in Vietnam to do the same during the Vietnam War.
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As we all know from our history books, Malaya suffered under the Japanese occupation but did you know that the British had used chemical and biological warfare on the locals then too?
During the Malayan Emergency aka Darurat (1948-1960), an insurgency to overthrow the British colonial administration, the British used herbicides that are said to be a version of Agent Orange as part of their “Scorched Earth Policy.”
The British journal New Scientist revealed in 1984 that the British army had used a herbicide identical to Agent Orange.
The idea was to destroy crops that would feed the communist insurgents. The herbicide, which is also a defoliant, also makes plants shed leaves to help lessen the number of hiding places for the insurgents in the tropical jungle.
The records relating to events up to 1952 showed that at least 20 sites in west Pahang had been sprayed with the toxic herbicide.
The use of the herbicide during the Malayan Emergency inspired US forces to use similar tactics on the Vietnamese population.
What’s Agent Orange and what’s the damage?
Agent Orange is more widely known to have been used by the US in the Vietnam War and the toxic side effects on generations of Vietnamese locals were devastating.
Agent Orange is made from equal parts of 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) and 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). The by-product of manufacturing 2,4,5-T is dioxin/TCDD which causes lasting damage on people until today.
The chemicals can remain in the soil and lakes and rivers for generations. It can enter the food supply through the fats of animals such as fish.
Years after the Vietnamese War, some Vietnamese people are born with deformities and various health complications such as cancer.
I will never understand how ppl started letting the colonists lecture the world on values & pretend to be the good guys. https://t.co/Wgd16gnySi pic.twitter.com/Ro1jE8xEOz
— Hott Coker (@AnnaSazin) June 1, 2024
Were Malayans affected by Agent Orange?
We know little because not many records were kept about it. Most people found out or were reminded that Agent Orange was used during the Emergency when it was kind of brought up in an international court case.
The Soviet Union was being accused of using chemical warfare against the Afghan people and the French Le Monde Diplomatique revealed that the British army did the same in Malaya.
It seemed like the effect of Agent Orange on Malayans wasn’t as bad as what happened to the Vietnamese simply because the British were allegedly stingy on using chemicals.
While the US army liberally sprayed all over Vietnam, the British army eventually figured out that using manual labour to clear trees and shrubs was cheaper than buying and spraying chemicals.
The British were also sneaky for calling the chemical Trioxone instead of calling it Agent Orange outright.
At the time, Trioxone was seen as a new herbicide and has been used for non-combat purposes in the US and the UK. By calling it Trioxone, the British could use plausible deniability if the law was involved and said they were just killing weeds in the jungle with the herbicide.
As such, the British also argued that using Agent Orange could not be considered biological or chemical warfare because it was considered a herbicide and defoliant.
Calls to investigate the extent of damage
Due to the lack of information, there had been calls for the government to investigate the full extent of Agent Orange spraying during the Emergency.
It was posited that it was also important to study the data to see if there was a high number of health issues and deformities in sprayed areas through the years.
Meanwhile, in Vietnam, an 81-year-old woman named Tran To Nga is waging a court battle against US chemical firms to win justice for the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange.
Nga is a civilian up against 14 multinational chemical firms, including Dow Chemical and Monsanto, that produced and sold the toxic herbicide sprayed over Vietnam.
The French court threw Nga’s case out in May 2021 but she refused to give up, as reported in 2023.
Nga, a victim of Agent Orange herself, initially did not know she was exposed to the chemicals. She was a trainee journalist in her mid-20s then and when she came out of an underground shelter one day, she was covered in wet powder from a US aircraft.
A year after the exposure, she gave birth to her first baby in 1968. The baby girl was born with a congenital heart disease and only survived 17 months. Nga blamed herself for being a bad mother.
She suspected her child was a victim of Agent Orange decades later after encountering veterans and their disabled children in similar situations. Nga herself is suffering from effects including type 2 diabetes and cancer.
Nga said she was offered a lot of money to settle the lawsuit but refused to accept it. Instead, she had started a crowdfunding campaign in 2023 to finance an appeal scheduled for 2024.
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