A herbicide and defoliant used by US forces in Vietnam to remove leaves from trees that provided cover for North Vietnamese and Vietcong forces. Named for the orange stripe on the fifty-five-gallon drums in which it was stored, Agent Orange included traces of a dioxin, known to cause a variety of health problems and congenital deformities. Prostate cancer, spina bifida, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and respiratory cancers are a few of the diseases linked to the chemical put out by Monsanto Corporation (which covered up information about the dioxin contamination in the product). Several thousand Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange receive treatment from the Veteran’s Administration hospitals; the Vietnamese on whom the chemical was dropped have not received compensation of any kind.