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<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/galleymore05282010.html" eudora="autourl">
http://www.counterpunch.org/galleymore05282010.html<br><br>
</a></font><font size=2 color="#990000">May 28 - 30, 2010<br><br>
</font><h1><font size=4><b>"Perfectly Safe: It Just Kills Plants ...
" <br><br>
</i></font><font size=5 color="#990000">Agent Orange and the Third
Generation </b></font></h1><font size=4>By SUSAN GALLEYMORE <br><br>
</font><font size=3>Each year for the last five years the U.S. has
welcomed a delegation of Vietnamese affected by spraying chemicals in
Vietnam three decades ago. The Fifth Agent Orange Justice Tour ended
recently. It focused national attention on grass roots and legislative
efforts to achieve comprehensive assistance to victims in Vietnam, to the
children and grandchildren of U.S. veterans, and to
Vietnamese-Americans.<br><br>
It is not news that American troops fighting for the U.S. military in
Vietnam were told by their commanders that the defoliants and herbicides
sprayed by the U.S. Air Force were “perfectly safe...[they] just kill
plants.”<br>
The statistics, while heartbreaking, are, likewise, not news for anyone
who pays attention to recent history. From 1961 to 1970 more than 20,000
missions that composed Operations “Trail Dust” and “Ranch Hand” dispersed
about 13 million gallons of chemicals over five million acres of
Vietnam's forests and agricultural lands; southern Laos and Cambodia were
sprayed too.<br><br>
To the military mind, defoliating was a practical solution that
disallowed cover to the enemy. To the corporate mind – Dow, Monsanto,
Hercules, Uniroyal, Diamond Shamrock, Syntex Agribusiness, and more than
two dozen others – manufacturing chemicals provided good ROI: one gallon
of liquid cost $7 back then. Moreover, corporations sped up the 2,4,5T
manufacturing process so they could produce more, faster. They ignored
the partially catalyzed molecule, dioxin, that was a byproduct of the
faster process; it remained in Agent Orange (AO).<br><br>
Vietnam's dense southern uplands' forests were sprayed with a range of
chemicals signified by color-coded barrels: Agents Blue, Orange, White,
Pink, Purple and so on. Areas that the C-123 “Provider” airplanes didn't
reach – equal to the size of Rhode Island -- were bulldozed with Rome
Plows.<br><br>
Paul Cox was a US Marine fighting along the DMZ for months. Today, he is
a civil engineer, a Veteran for Peace member, and a board member of
Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign (VAORRC). In a
recent presentation in San Francisco, he described the area he fought in
at the time as “almost totally denuded from high explosives and multiple
spraying sorties; aside from some invasive grass, hardly anything lived,
no animals, no bugs, no nothin'. We could operate in the area for days in
a row and see no living trees.”<br><br>
Since 1994, the Canadian company Hatfield Consultants has conducted
contamination and mitigation work in Vietnam in close collaboration with
Vietnamese Government agencies. More than nine projects in twenty
provinces have determined levels of Agent Orange/dioxin in soils, food
items, human blood, and breast milk. Hatfield also studies the effects of
loss of timber that leads to reduced sustainability of ecosystems,
decreases in the biodiversity of plants and animals, poorer soil quality,
increased water contamination, heavier flooding and erosion, increased
leaching of nutrients and reductions in their availability, invasions of
less desirable plant species (primarily woody and herbaceous grasses),
and possible alterations of Vietnam's macro- and micro-climates.<br><br>
In short, there is no let up to the devastation wreaked by war's
practicality and profit three decades ago.<br><br>
Consistent determination<br><br>
Despite VAVA delegates representing three million people when they travel
to the U.S., to date U.S. courts have not acknowledged the chemicals'
effects on Vietnam or the Vietnamese.<br><br>
Yet, under U.S. law, veterans who served in Vietnam between 1962 and 1975
(including those who visited Vietnam even briefly), and who have a
disease that the Veterans Administration (VA) recognizes as being
associated with Agent Orange, are presumed to have been exposed to Agent
Orange and are eligible for service-connected compensation based on their
service.<br>
The VA’s list of “Diseases associated with exposure to certain herbicide
agents” are Acute and Subacute Peripheral Neuropathy,AL Amyloidosis,
Chloracne (or Similar Acneform Disease), Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
(now expanded to B Cell Leukemias), Diabetes Mellitus (Type 2), Hodgkin’s
Disease, Ischemic Heart Disease, Multiple Myeloma, Non-Hodgkin’s
Lymphoma, Parkinson’s Disease, Porphyria Cutanea Tarda, Prostate Cancer,
Respiratory Cancers (of the lung, larynx, trachea, and bronchus), and
Soft Tissue Sarcoma.<br><br>
Veterans' children born with Spina bifida “may be eligible for
compensation, vocational training and rehabilitation and health care
benefits.” For the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) concluded in its
1996 update to its report on Veterans and Agent Orange – Health Effects
of Herbicides Used in Vietnam that there is “limited/suggestive evidence
of an association between exposure to herbicides used in Vietnam and
spina bifida in children of Vietnam veterans.”<br><br>
A time line, briefly<br><br>
September 10, 2004: an amended class action complaint was submitted to
the U.S. District Court, Eastern District; Constantine P. Kokkoris,
represented the victims.<br><br>
March 10, 2005: in Brooklyn, Judge Weinstein dismissed victims'
claims.<br><br>
September 30, 2005: a Brief was submitted to the 2nd Circuit Court of
Appeals in New York against 36 U.S. chemical companies. The summary by
Jonathan Moore states: <br><br>
</font>
<dl>
<dd>The lawsuit...seeks to hold accountable the chemical companies who
manufactured and supplied Agent Orange to the government. Contrary to
government specifications, the product supplied to the government
contained an excessive and avoidable amount of poison...[D]ioxin...was
present in the herbicides supplied to the government only because these
chemical companies deliberately and consciously chose to ignore then
existing industry standards and produce a herbicide that contained
excessive and avoidable amounts of dioxin. The presence of the poison
dioxin had no military necessity...chemical companies...knew that the
more herbicide they produced the more money they would make and the
faster they produced it the more they could sell to the
government....[T]hey ignored industry standards....<br><br>
</dl>That lawsuit was unsuccessful.<br><br>
Another try<br><br>
This year VAVA, Veterans for Peace, and the Vietnamese will begin to
apply pressure on Congress to pay the bills for damage done in that
country. These groups are drafting legislation that they expect will
become a bill that, eventually, addresses this legacy. It consist of four
parts:<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>1) clean up the environment and do no further harm.<br><br>
<dd>2) address the problems of millions ill ...that now extends to three
generations.<br><br>
<dd>3) create regional medical centers specifically for victims' children
and grandchildren born with the physical deformities and mental illness
associated with dioxin.<br><br>
<dd>4) conduct a public health study on the Vietnamese American
population in the U.S. to learn if, and if so, how they have been
affected by AO sprayed in their homeland. (The assumption is that this
population could have a similar exposure to deployed American military
personnel).<br><br>
</dl>Personal stories: new every time<br><br>
If the news about dioxin – and the political and economic wrangling that
accompanies it – is depressingly familiar, what is always fresh are the
hopeful voices and enthusiastic faces of the VAVA delegates. All suffer
grievous disease or deformities yet their spirits and generosity are
astonishingly strong.<br><br>
This year, 33-year old Pham The Minh accompanied the small group. He is
the son of a Vietnamese fighter contaminated by Agent Orange in Quang Tri
Province where the spraying was most intensive. Minh and and his sister
were born after the war with birth defects that signal dioxin
contamination.<br>
His is no story of victimization. The man's voice is vibrantly honest and
alive as he says, “I grew up with pain in my spirit and in my body...I
graduated from university and I am happy to teach English to victims of
Agent Orange.”<br><br>
In Minh's city of Hai Phong alone there are more than 17,000 victims with
birth defects, most of whom live difficult lives and require constant
support from hard-pressed families.<br><br>
Last year, the delegation was headed by Dang Hong Nhut who suffers from
cancer and has experienced multiple miscarriages. Twenty-one year old
Tran Thi Hoan accompanied Nhut. Tran was born with one hand and no legs
due to her mother's exposure. Despite Tran and her mother both being
diagnosed with life threatening and disabling conditions that create
severe and life-long hardship, the young woman attends college and is
determined to work for a just solution for other Vietnamese
families.<br><br>
The 2007 delegates shared compelling stories too.<br><br>
Vo Thanh Hai was 19 years old in 1978 when he was employed replanting
trees around Nam Dong that had been defoliated by the U.S. Army's
spraying operations.<br><br>
In 1986, Mr. Hai’s wife miscarried. In 1987, their son, Vo Thanh Tuan Anh
was born. In 2001, he began episodes of fatigue and dizziness that was
diagnosed as osteosarcoma for which he was treated with surgery,
radiotherapy and chemotherapy.<br><br>
Their doctor also advised Mr. Hai to have a lump on his own neck
examined. Tests disclosed Hodgkins Disease.<br><br>
Both father and son have difficulty performing routine activities. Mrs.
Hoa provides their daily care...which means the family has little regular
income.<br><br>
Nguyen Van Quy served in the Vietnam People's Army from 1972 through
1975. He ate manioc, wild herbs and plants and drank water from streams
in areas that had been spayed with Agent Orange. He experienced periodic
headaches and exhaustion and itchy skin and rashes.<br><br>
In 2003, Mr. Quy was diagnosed with stomach cancer, liver damage and with
fluid in his lung. His son, Nguyen Quang Trung, was born with spinal,
limb and developmental disabilities, enlarged and deformed feet, and a
congenital spine defect; he cannot stand, walk, or use his
hands.<br><br>
Mr. Quy's daughter, Nguyen Thi Thuy Nga, was born deaf and dumb and
developmentally disabled. Neither child can attend school or work and
neither is self-sufficient.<br><br>
In her presentation in San Francisco, shortly before leaving the U.S. to
return home, another 2007 delegate, Mrs. Hong, said how happy she was to
have had a chance to visit this country and talk to people she found
“very welcoming.”<br>
Mrs. Hong had served in the Eastern Combat Zone of South Vietnam as a
clerk tailor and medical care worker. In 1964, she was sprayed with Agent
Orange while washing rice in a stream. She tried to dive into the water
to wash away the chemicals that stuck to her body. Moreover, she consumed
contaminated food, wild grasses, and water every day after that.<br><br>
In 1975 she was diagnosed with cirrhosis and required long term hospital
treatment. In 1999 she was found to have an enlarged spleen and
hemopoesis disorder. Several tests later uncovered cancer of the left
breast as well as shortness of breath, high blood pressure, cerebral
edema, breast cancer with bone metastasis, stomach aches, cirrhosis,
gall-stones and bladder-stones, varicose limbs, limb-skin ulcer, weak
legs and limited range of movement.<br><br>
Both Mr.Quy and Mrs Hong died shortly after they returned to
Vietnam.<br><br>
Tragedy of such magnitude easily can overwhelm those unprepared to hear
it. Yet listening deeply to these personal stories presented in the
even-handed, non-blaming manner of the VAVA delegates creates an opening
that may allow We, the People to apply pressure on Congress to co-create
legislation to alleviate our nation's moral stigma from our actions in
Vietnam.<br><br>
Perhaps the courage of the women in Lan Teh Nidah's poem, Night Harvest
can give hope to Americans of peace and reconciliation. These courageous
Vietnamese women harvested rice at night to avoid detection by American
forces.<br><br>
...<br><br>
The golds of rice and cluster bombs blend together.<br>
even delayed fuse bombs bring no fear:<br>
Our spirits have known many years of war.<br>
Come, sisters, let us gather the harvest.<br><br>
...<br><br>
We are the harvesters of my village,<br><br>
...<br><br>
We are not frightened by bombs and bullets in the air --<br><br>
Only by dew, wetting our lime-scented hair.<br><br>
One day, perhaps, we in the United States will acknowledge our
responsibilities in Vietnam. For we, too, have known many years of war.
Those of us who struggle for peace are harvesters too. Let us accept our
history, sew the seeds of peace, and highlight the futile lose/lose
proposition that is war.<br><br>
<font face="Verdana" size=2>Susan Galleymore</b> is author of
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0745328296/counterpunchmaga">
Long Time Passing: Mothers Speak about War and
Terror</a></i>
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0745328296/counterpunchmaga">
, host of Stanford</a> University's Raising Sand Radio, and a former
“military mom” and GI Rights Counselor. Contact her at
<a href="mailto:media@mothersspeakaboutwarandterror.org">
media@mothersspeakaboutwarandterror.org</a>. <br><br>
<br><br>
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