On smokey bear in Vietnam

Environmental History

Volumn 11, Issue 3, 2006, Pages 598-603

  Lewis, James G ^a  

^a Forest History Society   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CIVIL-MILITARY RELATIONSHIP; DEFOLIATION; FOREST MANAGEMENT;

ASIA; EURASIA; SOUTHEAST ASIA; VIET NAM;

EID: 33748960639     PISSN: 10845453     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/envhis/11.3.598     Document Type: Article

References (32)

1. William Clifford Lawter, Jr., Smokey Bear 20252: A Biography (Alexandria, Va.: Lindsay Smith Publishers, 1994), 50.
2. John R. Spey, interview with author June 10, 2006. Spey, who was with the spray unit in Vietnam from 1961-1964 and taught replacement pilots stateside for several years after that, believed that a pilot had a friend in the Forest Service send over some posters, which then were altered. Paul Cecil, historian of Operation Ranch Hand, recalled hearing at a Ranch Hand reunion where the posters came from but was not absolutely certain. According to unit commander Ralph Dresser, the Smokey poster hung in the briefing room in Vietnam beside one that read, "Fuck Communism!" Ralph Dresser, interview with author, June 13, 2006.
3. "List of Slang and Key Terms that are indispensable in understanding the Vietnam War," author and date unknown, The Virtual Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University, accessed January 27, 2006, at: http://star.vietnam.ttu.edu/starweb/vva/servlet.starweb.
4. Paul Frederick Cecil, Herbicidal Warfare: The Ranch Hand Project in Vietnam (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1986), 103.
5. Terry West, "USDA Forest Service Involvement in Post World War II International Forestry" in Changing Tropical Forests: Historical Perspectives on Todays Challenges in Central & South America, ed. Harold K. Steen and Richard P. Tucker (Durham, N.C.: Forest History Society, 1992), 277-99.
6. Ronald B. Hartzer and David A. Clary, Half a Century in Forest Conservation: A Biography and Oral History of Edward P. Cliff (Washington, D.C.: USDA Forest Service, 1981), 29. Chief Ed Cliff refused to speak about military or intelligence aspects ofthe Forest Service in Vietnam on record when he was interviewed about his career in 198o because he believed the missions were still classified. With the declassification of secret files and the willingness of those involved to share their experiences in the last decade, some of the Forest Service's overseas activities during the Cold War are finally coming to light.
7. Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison, The CIA's Secret War in Tibet(Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 2002), 75;
8. and Don Courtney "... And If You Find Out, I'll Have To Kill You," Smokejumper Magazine (January 2000), accessed June 2, 2oo6, at: http://www.smokejumpers.com/smokejumperg_magazine/ item.php?articles_id=248&magazine_editions_id=i6. Smokejumper Magazine has a number of articles by Vietnam-era veterans recounting their time overseas.
9. Cecil, Herbicidal Warfare, 29-35;
10. and Edmund Russell, War and Nature: Fighting Humans and Insects with Chemicals from World War I to "Silent Spring" (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 225-26.
11. William A. Buckingham, Jr., Operation Ranch Hand: The Air Force and Herbicides in Southeast Asia, 1961-1971 (Washington, D.C.: Office of Air Force History, U.S. Air Force), 69-72.
12. Cecil, Herbicidal Warfare, 57-58;
13. and Buckingham, Operation Ranch Hand, 109-12.
14. Ralph Dresser, interview with author, 13 June 2oo6.
15. "U.S. Admits Move to Burn Forests," New York Times, July 22,1972.
16. For more on the two operations, see Buckingham, Operation Ranch Hand, 109-12, 127-28. Both attempts were carried out during the rainy season, which the Forest Service had advised against.
17. Jay H. Cravens, A Well Worn Path (Huntington, W. Va.: University Editions, 1994), 324;
18. Buckingham, Operation Ranch Hand, 127;
19. Robert Reinhold, "A Modest Proposal 'Sherwood Forest,'" New York Times, July 23, 1972;
20. and Cecil, Herbicidal Warfare, 115.
21. Buckingham, Operation Ranch Hand, 200.
22. For more on the Forest Service and international forestry, see West, "USDA Forest Service Involvement in Post World War II International Forestry," 277-91;
23. and Gerald W. Williams, The USDA Forest Service: The First Century (Washington, D.C.: USDA Forest Service, 2000), 138-41.
24. Hartzer, Half a Century in Forest Conservation, 263.
25. Jay H. Cravens, interview with author, 23 June 2005.
26. Ibid.
27. Ibid.
28. Barry R. Flamm and Jay H. Cravens, "Effects of War Damage on the Forest Resources of South Viet Nam," Journal of Forestry 69 (November 1971): 789.
29. Cravens, Well Worn Path, 338.
30. Philip Fradkin, "More Curbs on Use of Herbicides Sought," Los Angeles Times, May 10, 1970.
31. "Threats Delay Spraying of Timberlands," Los Angeles Times, September 30, 1979;
32. Mark A. Stein, "Herbicide Spraying Plan Draws Fire," Los Angeles Times, August 15, 1983.