Purpose of this poem

Have you read the poem, "Rainbow Death"? If you had, I think you would have landed yourself in the same situation when I first started to read this poem. What do all the different colours mean? Purple, Pink, Green and Agent Orange...

This small poem speaks of a modern day ingredient of warfare that has caused appalling death and suffering – not only to its intended victims, the Vietnamese people, but also the service personnel that used or even just came into contact with “Agent Orange”.

“Agent Orange is the code name for a herbicide and defoliant—contaminated with TCDD—used by the U.S. military in its Herbicidal Warfare program during the Vietnam War.

According to Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, 4.8 million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, resulting in 400,000 deaths and disabilities, and 500,000 children born with birth defects.

From 1962 to 1971, Agent Orange was by far the most widely used of the so-called "Rainbow Herbicides" employed in the herbicidal warfare program. During the production of Agent Orange (as well as Agents Purple, Pink, and Green) dioxins were produced as a contaminant, which have caused numerous health problems for the millions of people who have been exposed. Agents Blue and White were part of the same program but did not contain dioxins.”

Hubert Wilson was part of the team which took part in the Vietnam War. He was also exposed to this disease and wrote this poem to highlight to others that many Vietnamese had died during the war not because they were on the frontline but because they were infected by this incurable disease. This poem may remind us that wars aren’t over when the wars are over. Both countries can call for a truce to stop the war, but the aftereffects of war would always stay etched in the victims' minds.