The web of knowledge about dioxin contaminated herbicides never reached U.S. government decision makers

In 1979 renowned colonial historian, W. Keith Kavenagh, joined VictorYannacone in managing the Agent Orange litigation and together they searched and organized the hundreds of thousands of documents provided by the government and the chemical company war contractors. Eventually Dr. Kavenagh established the web of knowledge about dioxin contaminated herbicides and established that no one in authority in the United States government knew what the chemical companies knew.

He passed away in 1983 but not before providing the analysis which ultimately defeated the “Government Contractor Immunity” defense of the corporated defendant war contractors who manufactured dioxin contaminated herbicides for use during the War in Southeast Asia.

The longhand mapping of all those documents and the web of knowledge Dr. Kavenagh wove from them established a clear path through the miasma of misinformation characterizing the defense of the Agent Orange litigation by the chemical company war contractors.

It clearly shows the lack of any information transfer much less coordination among government agencies and staff during the war in Southeast Asia during the 1960s. Unfortunately the evidence continues to show the same sorry state of information transfer through, between, and among federal government agencies exists today.