UMass Amherst Libraries’ Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center Present New 4K Restoration of Award-Winning 1984 Film, Vietnam: The Secret Agent

On Monday, November 13, from 7-9 p.m., the Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center at the UMass Amherst Libraries presents a one-night only screening of Vietnam: The Secret Agent, an award-winning 1984 film newly restored as a 4K print by IndieCollect. This event to honor Veterans Day will be held at Amherst Cinema and will be followed by a panel discussion with the filmmakers, scholars, and a Vietnam veteran. 

Called “…a tough, angry look at the consequences of exposure to Agent Orange” by the New York Times, Vietnam: The Secret Agent, was the first comprehensive look at dioxin, the contaminant of Agent Orange, a chemical sprayed over the crops, jungles, and villages of South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. When U.S. veterans were trying to gain recognition and help for a host of illnesses that they believed resulted from their exposure to the Agent Orange defoliant, this film’s release ushered in the largest mass tort class action settlement of its time, between the veterans and chemical companies responsible for the manufacture of Agent Orange. 

Using rare archival and striking war footage to support interviews with veterans, scientists, attorneys, the Air Force, the VA, and Dow Chemical, Vietnam: The Secret Agent documents the extraordinary history of chemical warfare and agricultural herbicides, damage to our environment, and the plight of veterans from the war in Vietnam. Upon release in 1984, the film won the Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and a Blue Ribbon from the American Film Festival.

Soldiers returned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan plagued by illness, disabilities, and PTSD. Veterans continue to struggle for proper health care. Congress recently approved the PACT act promising to increase health care and benefits for veterans exposed to “burn pits and other toxic exposures,” yet it remains critical to illuminate struggles and lessons from past conflicts. Every issue raised in this film about the war in Vietnam continues to resonate in today’s political climate.

Filmmakers Jacki Ochs and Daniel Keller will join Michitake Aso, Associate Professor of History at the University of Albany and Bruce Dobson from the Vietnam Veterans of America in a panel discussion moderated by Christian Appy, Professor of History at UMass Amherst. Aso has lived in Vietnam and has written about the environmental impacts of the war. Appy has written extensively on the Vietnam war and teaches a popular undergraduate course on the subject at UMass Amherst. Daniel Keller was the co-founder, with Charles Light, of Green Mountain Post Films (GMP), whose archive is housed at the Robert S. Cox Special Collections and University Archives Research Center. Over the course of their 50 year history, GMP has produced several films that have been used as educational and organizational tools for activists working on peace, veteran, nuclear, environmental and other related issues.

Sponsored in partnership with the UMass History Department, the Daniel Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy, and Amherst Cinema.

Bios

Jacki Ochs

Jacki Ochs is an award-winning executive producer, producer and director of documentary film on a wide range of subjects which have been shown worldwide. Honors include the Guggenheim and two MacDowell Colony fellowships. She has been Executive Director of Human Arts Association, a not-for-profit media and arts sponsoring organization in New York City, since 1980. She is Professor Emerita at Pratt Institute and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

Daniel Keller

Daniel Keller has enjoyed decades of producing, directing, shooting, and editing documentary films, many related to the environment and threats to it from human activity, He is Co-Founder and President of Green Mountain Post Films, a production/distribution company of social issue films, including “Lovejoy’s Nuclear War,” the story of one man’s fight against a Massachusetts nuclear plant, which was chosen for the John Grierson Award in 1976. He lives on and maintains a small organic farm, raising sustainable fruit, vegetables, and sheep with his wife and children.

Michitake Aso

Mitch Aso is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at the University at Albany. In 2018, he published Rubber and the Making of Vietnam (UNC Press), which won the Agricultural History Society’s Henry A. Wallace Award and the Forest History Society’s Charles A. Weyerhaeuser Award. In 2023, this book came out in Vietnamese translation. He has also published several articles and book chapters. He has held fellowships at Kyoto University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the National University of Singapore, and participated on NEH- and Luce-funded grants. He regularly teaches courses on environmental, medical, and world history.

Bruce Dobson

Bruce Dobson is a veteran who served in the US Air Force from 1963-1967. He served at Westover Air Force Base in Chicopee, Mass., for two years, Vietnam for one year, and nine months at Altus Air Force Base in Oklahoma in 1967. When he left the Air Force, he worked for New England Telephone. As a result of his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam, he developed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and colon cancer and qualified for 100% disability from the VA. He is a member of Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) and has been involved in various aspects of the organization including: Public Affairs for Chapter 908 in Lynn, MA, Vice President of the VVA MA State Council, and the National Agent Orange Committee. He lives in Winthrop, Mass., with his wife Irene.

Christian Appy

Chris Appy is director of the Ellsberg Initiative for Peace and Democracy and a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst where he has received the Chancellor’s Medal, the Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award. He is the author of three books about the Vietnam War, most recently American Reckoning: The Vietnam War and Our National Identity. He is currently working on a book about Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg.