This week, a lecture about battling nature in Korea and Vietnam.

Boise State University professor Lisa Brady talks about how chemical agents were used during the Korean and Vietnam wars

to destroy the landscape and infrastructure.

She argues that during this time, the U.S. military began to see foreign landscapes as an enemy rather than an obstacle.

This is a quote. South Vietnam is covered with dense forests, jungle, and mangrove.

Utilization of this natural concealment has afforded the enemy great tactical and logistical advantages vis-à-vis allied forces.

A paramount military problem from the outset, therefore, has been the difficulty of locating the enemy.

Without information about enemy dispositions, our forces cannot exploit their advantage of superior firepower.

Professor Brady also describes the reasons for various defoliation missions, as well as the long-term damage to both the

environment and the locals.

Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs.

Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run, and grow your business with easy,

customizable themes that

let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping

solutions that actually save you time, from startups to scaleups, online, in person, and on the

go. Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.

Okay, so today we're going to be talking about the wars in Korea and Vietnam from an environmental

history perspective. Many of you are quite well aware of the military side of things, how the wars progressed.

But I think it's very important for us to think about how nature is impacted by and shapes

warfare.

And these are two very important wars in American history, not only because Korea is often

considered to be the forgotten war, and so many of its veterans

...