Bear in mind that the Americans were nowhere near the first to utilise Agent Orange in warfare, the British used it during the Malayan Emergency. The Americans even referred to the British use of Agent Orange as a precedent to justify them using it in Vietnam. But it is important to remember that Agent Orange was designed as a defoliant/herbicide, to destroy large areas of vegetation and crops, akin to an area denial weapon. The British use of Agent Orange was kept under tight wraps when compared to the American use, so as to not create negative public opinion.

There were attempts to charge the US at the UN for violating the Geneva Protocol of 1925, which restricted the usage of chemical and biological weapons. The US defeated the motion by asserting that Agent Orange was a defoliant/herbicide and was used to target crops and vegetation, not humans, the US also used the British example in Malaya as a precedent stating that the British and Commonwealth Nations must also be persecuted if the US were to be. The British commented on the resolution in the years after stating, “The evidence seems to us to be notably inadequate for the assertion that the use in war of chemical substances specifically toxic to plants is prohibited by international law.”