Agent Orange Outside Vietnam: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Guam, Johnston Atoll and Korea

38 U.S.C. 1116(d) names them with exact date ranges. Thailand, at any United States or Royal Thai base, from January 9, 1962 through June 30, 1976. Laos, from December 1, 1965 through September 30, 1969. Cambodia, at Mimot or Krek in Kampong Cham Province, from April 16, 1969 through April 30, 1969. Guam or American Samoa, or the territorial waters of either, from January 9, 1962 through July 31, 1980. Johnston Atoll, or a ship that called at Johnston Atoll, from January 1, 1972 through September 30, 1977.

The Cambodia window is fifteen days long and covers two named locations. That is not a summarizing error. It is what the statute says.

None of these appear in the regulation. 38 CFR 3.307(a)(6) runs (i) through (v), covering the herbicide agent definition, the presumptive period, Vietnam, the Korean DMZ and C-123 aircraft. The next paragraph is (a)(7), Camp Lejeune. There is no regulatory paragraph for Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Guam, American Samoa or Johnston Atoll, and a claim relying on one of those five is relying on the statute.

The Thailand cohort is worth a second look for anyone previously denied. The older regulatory approach turned on perimeter duty. The statute conditions covered service simply on service at any United States or Royal Thai base, without that requirement.

Korea has its own statute section, 38 U.S.C. 1116B, added by section 3(a) of the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019 on June 25, 2019. It covers service in or near the Korean Demilitarized Zone from September 1, 1967 through August 31, 1971, and it does not require a Department of Defense unit determination.

38 CFR 3.307(a)(6)(iv) still reads differently. It runs from April 1, 1968 through August 31, 1971, and it requires that the veteran served in a unit that the Department of Defense determined operated in or near the DMZ in an area where herbicides are known to have been applied. That is seven months narrower and carries an extra evidentiary condition.

VA's own Agent Orange eligibility page publishes September 1, 1967 through August 31, 1971. VA is administering the statute. The proposed rule at RIN 2900-AR10 would change the regulation to match, but it had not been finalized as of August 21, 2026.

38 U.S.C. 1116A, added by Public Law 116-23 and effective January 1, 2020, extends the section 1116 disease presumptions to veterans who served offshore of the Republic of Vietnam between January 9, 1962 and May 7, 1975. Offshore is defined at 1116A(d) as not more than 12 nautical miles seaward of a line drawn between specified geographic coordinates.

The 12 nautical mile rule appears nowhere in the CFR. 38 CFR 3.307(a)(6)(iii) still uses the older formulation, that service in the Republic of Vietnam includes service in the waters offshore and service in other locations where the conditions of service involved duty or visitation in Vietnam. The proposed rule would add the coordinates. It has not.

1116A(c) matters for anyone denied years ago. A claimant whose earlier claim was denied and who files again and is granted under this section may have the earlier filing date used for the effective date. The provision references claims filed between September 25, 1985 and January 1, 2020 that are refiled after January 1, 2020.

38 CFR 3.309(e) lists 14 diseases: AL amyloidosis, chloracne or other acneform disease consistent with chloracne, type 2 diabetes, Hodgkin's disease, ischemic heart disease, all chronic B-cell leukemias, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Parkinson's disease, early-onset peripheral neuropathy, porphyria cutanea tarda, prostate cancer, respiratory cancers, and soft-tissue sarcoma other than osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, Kaposi's sarcoma or mesothelioma.

Five more exist only in 38 U.S.C. 1116(a)(2): bladder cancer, hypothyroidism, parkinsonism as distinct from Parkinson's disease, monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, and hypertension. Three retrievals of the current regulation on August 21, 2026, including a dated snapshot and the 2025 annual edition, all confirm those five are absent from 3.309(e). The section was last amended on March 13, 2023.

VA's public page names all 19, which is the regulation plus the statute. Anyone reading only the CFR sees a shorter list than the one VA is actually working from. Anyone reading only the statute sees a list that omits ischemic heart disease and prostate cancer, which have been presumptive for years.

Two thresholds ride along with the list. The disease generally has to have manifested to a degree of 10 percent or more at any time after service. Chloracne, porphyria cutanea tarda and early-onset peripheral neuropathy have to reach that degree within one year of the last exposure.

October 1, 2026. The PACT Act added hypertension as 38 U.S.C. 1116(a)(2)(M) on August 10, 2022, but the effective-date note at Public Law 117-168 section 404(d) split the applicability. From August 10, 2022 it applied to dependency and indemnity compensation claimants under chapter 13 and to veterans the Secretary determines are terminally ill, homeless, under extreme financial hardship, more than 85 years old, or able to demonstrate other sufficient cause. For everyone else the statutory date is October 1, 2026.

Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance, added as 1116(a)(2)(L) in the same amendment, ran the same split with a general date of October 1, 2022. That date has passed.

Nothing about the October 2026 date requires action before it. It is the date the presumption becomes generally applicable, not a window that shuts. A free accredited VSO can file the claim and does not charge for it.

No. The Department of Defense maintains a list of dates and locations where tactical herbicides were tested, used or stored outside Vietnam, including United States military bases, and updates it as information comes in. VA publishes and links that list. Neither the statute nor the CFR attaches a presumption of exposure to those sites.

The PACT Act legislated five specific locations, the ones at the top of this page. For a test or storage site not on that list, exposure is decided on the evidence in the particular file rather than presumed. The proposed rule at RIN 2900-AR10 would add a paragraph presuming exposure at Department of Defense recognized herbicide sites, which is a reasonable indication that no such presumption exists today.

That does not close the route. Service connection can still be established directly, on the evidence, without any presumption. It is a different kind of claim and it turns on documentation rather than on a list.