The whole story about "treehuggers banning DDT and letting millions die" is a false. I would say myth but it has been exposed and shown to be false so well and so often that it isn't even a question any more.

Fact is that DDT was losing ground as insects were becoming immune to it. The banning for routine crop use, and blatant overuse, saved DDT as a useful insecticide by limiting exposure of insects to it in sub-lethal doses. It is still made and used but every year it loses more ground because tolerance in insects keeps going up. Malathion, and other insecticides have take up the slack. The difference being that those alternatives are less persistent and less toxic to non-target species.