The Great Vellum Shortage Of 1964

Not many people know this, but we went to war in Vietnam over a shortage of vellum.

Back before CAD replaced manual drafting, you needed to draw all your plans on paper.

The paper drafters use is a tough translucent sheet called vellum.

In the old days vellum was thinly tanned sheep skin.

That stopped when The Troubles in Northern Ireland caused prices of sheep to climb dramatically.

Luckily, in Vietnam, a plant was discovered whose leaves could be bleached into a similar material.  This is the reason the French fought to hang on to their colony, to corner the market on vellum.

Remember, it was essential for any industrial nation to have a steady supply of this material or they would not be able to produce any plans to build anything.

Domestic supplies of sheep were enough to supply the US with enough vellum to keep up manufacturing, but the space race created an almost instant shortage of this vital material.

With the French out of Vietnam, the vital vellum leaf supply would go entirely to the Soviet Union and we would never reach the moon...

Luckily the vellum plantations were in the south.

Equally lucky a substitute paper made from everyday wood pulp was discovered and eventually computers took over before the last plant was harvested and made extinct.

But that was another story.  Dr Seuss wrote "The Lorax" to bring attention to and illustrate the near eradication of the Vellum Tree.