Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson,

the past brought to life by those who were there. This week the final fate of Joseph

Mangale, one of the most notorious Nazi war criminals.

Mangale performed the most serious experiments, including taking out organs from people without an aesthetic.

Plus from the 1970s the Corpus Christi massacre in Mexico City perpetrated by government-trained

paramilitaries and the medical report in the 1960s which warned of the risks from

cigarette smoking but which the government in Britain tried to ignore, as did many smokers.

No, because I like smoking. If I'm going to die, I'm going to die, that I might as to enjoy life as it is now.

Quite honestly, I think that at the end of one's life is probably more in the hands of Almighty God,

do know, than in my own hands.

That's coming up later in the podcast, but we begin with one of the most appalling aspects

of the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 70s. As American forces battled to prop up the South Vietnamese

government in the face of the communist opposition and insurgents from the north, they turned

to some unconventional tactics.

The US ground troops, even though supported by superior air power,

were less experienced in jungle warfare than their Viet Cong opponents.

To flush them out and to clear the terrain, the US sprayed toxic

defoliants. Millions of Vietnamese people were exposed to those chemicals and the

effects of Agent Orange are still being felt today.

Alex Last reports. decades ago during the Vietnam War, fleets of American aircraft sprayed vast amounts of chemical

defoliants and herbicides over South Vietnam. The aim was to destroy the forests,

jungles and vegetation that provided cover for the enemy, Vietnamese Communist guerrillas,

...