It has been widely suspected for some time now that the main purpose of our defoliation program in Vietnam is crop destruction. This has been persuasively presented and documented in Seymour M. Hersh's book Chemical and Biological Warfare, America's Hidden Arsenal. Dr. Leopold (BioScience 18 [9]: 853) implies that these herbicides cannot be too harmful since we use 57 million lb. of it per year in our own country. These statistics take on a somewhat more ominous character, however, when one notes that in 1967 the Pentagon announced the purchase of nearly $60 million worth of defoliants and herbicides . . . Before Dr. Leopold asserts our right to defend our troops by defoliating in Vietnam, he should first question our right to be there at all .... Dr. Leopold distorts the argument. His statement embarrasses me as a member of the human community.