Statement I : In Vietnam War, Americans used powerful defoliants such as Agent Orange over large areas of dense forest and agricultural fields. Statement I : Defoliants are very dangerous war weapons which leave the forests and agricultural fields barren.

Statement I is true as the United States military conducted Operation Ranch Hand (1962–1971) during the Vietnam War, spraying approximately 19 to 20 million gallons of herbicides, primarily Agent Orange, to deprive enemy forces of forest cover and food crops [t1, t6]. Statement II is also true and provides the correct explanation for why these chemicals were used as weapons. Defoliants like Agent Orange contained high concentrations of dioxin, an extremely toxic substance that caused massive ecological destruction, including the loss of five million acres of forest and millions of acres of crops [t1, t6]. These chemicals leave agricultural fields and forests barren by destroying foliage and contaminating the soil for decades, effectively serving as a weapon of herbicidal warfare to disrupt the environment and food supply [t4, t5].

Sources

1. [1] https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0305750X22000031