n July 23, 1994, the Defense Science Board announced that "there is no evidence that either chemical or biological warfare was deployed at any level, or that there was any exposure of U.S. service members to chemical or biological warfare agents" (Tuite 3).
No sooner had these assurances been given, than the federal government began to backtrack in the face of contrary evidence. In weighing that evidence three years later, the Economist commented: "both in America and Britain the way in which the military establishments have tried to explain what happened has been sufficiently incompetent that they are now suspected by many of trying to hide something" ("Darkness" 71). One reason for suspicion was that the Defense Department had tried to deny the deleterious effects of Agent Orange on people in Vietnam. Karnow had said in the early 1980s "thousands [of veterans] were exposed to Agent Orange, a chemical herbicide th
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