The rainbow herbicides damaged the ecosystems and cultivated lands of Vietnam, and led to the buildup of dioxins in the regional food chain.[1] About 4.8 million people were affected.[11] The environmental destruction caused by this defoliation has been described by Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, lawyers, historians and other academics as an ecocide.[12][13][14][15][16]

In addition to testing and using the herbicides in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, the US military also tested the "Rainbow Herbicides" and many other chemical defoliants and herbicides in the United States,[17] Canada, Puerto Rico, Korea, India, and Thailand[18] from the mid-1940s to the late 1960s. Herbicide persistence studies of Agent Orange and Agent White were conducted in the Philippines.[19] The Philippine herbicide test program was conducted in cooperation with the University of the Philippines College of Forestry, and was also described in a 1969 issue of The Philippine Collegian, the college's newspaper. Super or enhanced Agent Orange was tested by representatives from Fort Detrick and Dow Chemical in Texas, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and later in Malaysia, in a cooperative project with the International Rubber Research Institute.[8] Picloram in Agent White and Super-Orange was contaminated by hexachlorobenzene (HCB).[citation needed] The Canadian government also tested these herbicides and used them to clear vegetation for artillery training.[20]

A 2003 study in Nature found that the military underreported its use of rainbow herbicides by 2,493,792 U.S. gal (9,440,030 L; 2,076,516 imp gal).[11]