Military Use of Herbicides Must End, Meselson Says

Matthew S. Meselson '38, professor of Biology who formed a commission to study U.S. defoliation tactics in South Vietnam, told an audience of 200 last night that about one-sixth of South Vietnam, or an area as large as the state of Massachusetts, has been defoliated by the United State military.

Meselson and he four other members of the herbicide Assessment Commission, organized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in December of 1963, spent last August in South Vietnam "seeing for ourselves the dimensions of the problem.

Because information on herbicides is classified. Meselson had only approximate knowledge of when and where they were used.

Meselson said military defoliation tactics were directed toward three kinds of targets: (1) linear areas along road-sides and canals (2) large blocks of jungle to reduce concealment, and (3) croplands in enemy-held territory of South Vietnam. The first two targets have been abandoned, he added.

He said the chemicals were intended to act only as defoliants, not killing the plants. But they have acted as herbicides instead, inflicting "semi-permanent" harm on plant growth, he added.

Meselson said the objectives of the commission were to examine the inundated mangrove and hardwood forests that had been sprayed, look for medical side-effects among the South Vietnamese such as still births and birth defects, and examine the possibility of herbicides entering the food chain.