Essay On Napalm

Although napalm, an extremely effective and destructive chemical agent, demonstrated success on the battlefield, it was found to be tremendously inhumane. Being a fierce and reckless chemical agent, napalm would leave the enemy dead or with everlasting effects from the burns. Not only was it dangerous, it was also versatile in that it could be used in a variety of delivery methods.
Napalm was used very wildly during the Vietnam War. Napalm is “chemical mixture of aluminum, oleic acid, coconut fatty acid, naphthenic, and an acid produced from petroleum” (new standard encyclopedia). Napalm is like a sticky jelly that is extremely flammable and can burn for up to ten minutes creating temperatures ranging anywhere from 1500 to 2200 degrees fahrenheit (vietnamawbb.weebly.com). To put the heat generated by napalm into perspective, water boils at 212 degrees fahrenheit, that means napalm burns seven to ten times hotter hotter than water boils. Being so sticky, napalm would latch to the human skin, burning and almost melting away at all of the meat and bones of the victim. Unveiling an unbearable amount of pain, when people were hit with napalm, it generally meant death (vietnamawbb.weebly.com).
Napalm was “ created by a team of scientists led by Louis F. Fieser at Harvard University between 1942 and 1943” (thevietnamwar.info). The goal in mind was to create a chemical agent that would burn burn longer than gasoline because “gasoline burned out too quickly”
It was a chemical agent that demonstrated success and implemented fear into the Vietnamese. Although it was an effective weapon, it was unjustly inhumane and caused severe damage to the people of Vietnam and its environment. Its ferocious and and destructive nature along with its range of delivery methods made it a symbol of brutality in the Vietnam