Defoliation Conference 29-30 July 1963

Over two days 29-30 July 1963 at the United States Army Biological Laboratories at Fort Detrick, at the “First Defoliation Conference” attended by the Dow Chemical Company, Monsanto, and most of the other American chemical companies manufacturing or conducting research on herbicides, General Fred J. Delmore, Commander of Edgewood Arsenal told all the chemical company representatives that the Department of Defense wanted to make sure that whatever chemical it used would be “perfectly innocuous to man and animals and will do the job [defoliation].”

At the conclusion of the meeting, Albert Hayward, chief of the program coordination office at Fort Detrick, told the conference that “it goes without saying that the materials must be applicable by ground and air spray, that they must be logistically feasible, and that they must be non-toxic to humans and livestock in the area affected.”

Defoliation Conference 29-30 July 1963 at Fort Detrick

Defoliation Conference Mission Statement