There is well documented affects of agent orange on the people living in Vietnam, but what is the affect on people who were deploying it or were exposed to it on the U.S. side? The people flying the planes/helicopters? Are there more casualties/birth defects affecting people who participated in these missions? This may be a very touchy subject, but I want to know how many/if we poisoned our own troops (USA)
Firstly, Agent Orange is just one of multiple dioxin-based defoliants that were used in Vietnam. There was also an Agent Purple, Agent Green, Agent White, Agent Pink, and Agent Blue. Agent Orange also had four variants. These were referred to as the Rainbow Herbicides. The reason that Agent Orange is most known to you is not because of its effects on Vietnamese civilians, but because it was the topic of a class action lawsuits by American veterans against Dow Chemical and Monsanto in the early 1980's and the name of the 1993 law. The chemical companies never lost in court, but they ended up settling with the veterans' groups.
These lawsuits eventually led to Congress passing the "Agent Orange Act of 1993". While the act cites Agent Orange specifically, it applies to all dioxin based herbicides used in the Vietnam Era. This act provided for three important changes to the standard way in which disability claims were processed at the Department of Veterans Affairs:
Veterans did not need to prove they were exposed to defoliants. If the veteran was simply in Vietnam at any point during the Vietnam Era, VA would concede exposure and assume that the veteran's health was affected by the defoliants.
VA would conduct research to determine the health affects of Agent Orange and be able to assign disability ratings for any conditions that are associated for exposure to defoliants.
VA would not be able to consider the financial cost in determining whether or not a condition is associated with exposure to defoliants.
Based on this third provision, VA has labeled multiple conditions as "presumptively associated with exposure to defoliants." This means that if a veteran was in Vietnam and develops one of these conditions later in life, he/she is automatically granted benefits without needing to prove that the condition is directly related to his/her military service.
For example, because Type II Diabetes is considered a presumptive condition, if a veteran is diagnosed with Type II Diabetes and served in Vietnam, he is automatically granted a monthly financial stipend and free medical care for his diabetes.
In this example, the importance of the third provision listed above cannot be overstated because VA is not allowed to consider any other possible contributing factors (i.e. lifestyle, family history, etc) in granting benefits.
The full listing of these conditions are listed in 38CFR 3.309. The list is periodically updated as new research comes out.
Source: I work at the Department of Veterans Affairs and have several years of experience in processing these claims.
Maybe a ninja edit: I missed the part about birth defects. Birth defects have only been found to be common in the children of women who were exposed. The most common birth defect is spina-bifida. These children and the female veteran mothers are entitled to specialized long-term financial and medical benefits as well.