>China was destroying its environment in the 1950s already
To be fair, every country was destroying the environment, even in the west, well after the 1950's as well.
To be fair, every country was destroying the environment, even in the west, well after the 1950's as well.
Meanwhile, in the US you already had strong conservationist movements starting up, leading to the creation of the EPA by 1970.
While China finally adopted some environmental protections in 1979, it wasn't until the late 1980s/early 1990s that they could override industrial development in key situations
Operation Ranch Hand ran 1962-1972, so that's a pretty lazy snipe.
While Ranch Hand was indefensible and US leaders should have been prosecuted for it, the scale of it is minuscule compared to the ecological damage of the Four Pests campaign.