Project Agent Orange — The Agent Orange | projectagentorange.com
Presumptive service connection means the VA assumes two things — that a qualifying veteran was exposed, and that a listed diagnosis is linked to that exposure — so neither has to be proven individually.
Qualifying service is defined by dates and place: duty in the Republic of Vietnam at any point between 9 January 1962 and 7 May 1975. The window deliberately outlasts the 1962–1971 spraying campaign because TCDD contamination persists in soil for an estimated 9 to 15 years.
The legal basis is the Agent Orange Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-4), which required presumptive service connection for diseases tied to dioxin exposure. The presumptive list has expanded since 1991 as evidence reviews added conditions, and it now runs to more than a dozen named diagnoses.
A claim needs two documented things: verified service inside the window, and a current diagnosis on the presumptive list. Three conditions — chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda and early-onset peripheral neuropathy — must additionally have appeared within one year of the last exposure.
On narrow screens, swipe or scroll the plate sideways.
Typical denial reasons are narrow and named: service dates that cannot be verified inside the window, no current diagnosis in the file, a diagnosis outside the list filed without supporting medical evidence, or a time-limited condition documented too late.
A diagnosis that is not on the list can still be claimed through direct service connection, but the claimant then carries the burden of medically linking the condition to exposure — the presumption does not apply.
For the conditions grouped with latency notes, see Agent Orange Health Effects (/health-effects); for the dates and volumes of the campaign itself, see the Agent Orange Spraying Timeline 1962-1971 (/spraying-timeline).
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