Napalm was invented at Harvard in the early s, a gel named after the combination of naphthenic and palmitic acid that can turn petroleum or any other fuel into a sticky, burning weapon. Its inventor, a chemist who went on to do much good in the medical field, said that he never expected napalm to be used on people, only things.
Neer, a visiting lecturer at Columbia University. Discover the fascinating story of Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the groundbreaking cryptanalyst who helped bring down gangsters and break up a Nazi spy ring in South America. Her work helped lay the foundation for modern codebreaking today. I n the summer of , hundreds of wildfires raged across the Northern Rockies.
By the time it was all over, more than three million acres had burned and at least 78 firefighters were dead. In Vietnam, the use of napalm was introduced first by the French and later by their US successors, who used it extensively, often causing a lot of collateral damage due to the fact that the fire, once released, was almost impossible to contain.
Having been pronounced as the winning weapon of the Korean War, napalm was part of the US arsenal from the very beginning of the conflict in Vietnam. In the decade from to , , tons of napalm were dropped on Vietnam. That is ten times the amount of napalm used in Korea 32, tons and almost twenty times more than was used in the Pacific 16, tons. Even if the flames could not penetrate into the bunker, the fire consumed enough oxygen to cause suffocation inside it. Napalm became a psychological weapon, as the enemy was terrified of the hell on earth caused by its use.
Later on in the war, the US bombers began to drop napalm bombs, which proved to be far more destructive than the flamethrowers. A napalm bomb could leave an area of 2, square yards engulfed in unquenchable fire. These mountains served as a main battleground during the Vietnam War Attached to South Vietnam fig. Are they only visible in the landscape? Are they only direct? To answer these questions, military as well as civilian practices were studied.
Knowledge was gathered via archival data and semi-structured interviews conducted in five villages. In each village, between three and five inhabitants were interviewed collectively Robert-Charmeteau, The pre- and post-war landscapes were also mapped and compared to identify their dynamics.
The post-war landscapes were reconstituted by using a Landsat satellite image from The military practices that could have an impact on landscapes were analysed first, before their direct and indirect consequences on the landscapes were identified.
PDF, accessed 6 April These herbicides were applied in high concentrations and often on repeated occasions. In other words, they were used as chemical weapons pointed at the environment of the enemy, and they became ecocides. Nearly 80 million litres were sprayed, including the infamous Agent Orange, mainly over South Vietnam Stellman et al.
This area, especially its main valley fig. The communication routes, including waterways, were subjected to repeated sprayings, while the highest reliefs were relatively spared. Map drawn from C. Smith and D. Watkins, One experienced logger whom we interviewed insisted that only 30 per cent of the timber trees survive one spraying. In the multiply-sprayed upland forests, estimated at 0. Herbicides were stored at these bases.
At all the bases, including the artillery ones, the soil was often bare — some photos taken during the war prove this point Robert, The total destruction of vegetation and the laying bare of the soil were achieved by other means, such as fire and bulldozers, which appeared in the US-South Vietnamese arsenal at the end of All of them were a priori added onto the original source map. The bases of the Special Forces, which neither of the sources noted, were added.
They formed craters and mutilated and destroyed the surrounding trees. Nevertheless, the destruction of trees was limited. A larger area could be affected in the case of incendiary — for example, napalm — bombs. The meaning of the line crossing Laos remains unknown. Because of their military practices, these fighters could alter the landscapes and cause destruction.
One reason for the lack of records could be that the Vietnamese military archives are still inaccessible. It was a large network of many roads and trails fig.
Their construction destroyed vegetation and levelled the relief Robert, , from gathered photos. These tools used at the beginning were subsequently perfected.
The adversary has apparently given us explosives for road building. The materials, taken from plants, were collected on the spot Robert, Even if it was rudimentary, it still caused deforestation and alterations.
Besides this deforestation, we should consider the impoverishment that occurred near these spots due to the collection of firewood and wood used for the construction of facilities, shelters or other infrastructures.
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