U.S. Starts Cleanup of Agent Orange in Vietnam
Almost 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War, the United States has established a cleanup program to address the effects of toxic chemicals used during the conflict that continue to afflict the Vietnamese people with cancers, birth defects and other diseases.
Almost 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War, the United States has established a cleanup program to address the effects of toxic chemicals used during the conflict that continue to afflict the Vietnamese people with cancers, birth defects and other diseases.
The defoliant Agent Orange fell on American soldiers in addition to Vietnamese military and civilians. Many of those who sprayed and came into contact with the chemical suffered illnesses later on. The U.S. government has spent billions of dollars on disability and health care for those soldiers.
The U.S. sprayed about 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, destroying millions of acres of forest and farmland.
— Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly.
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The program, which is expected to cost $43 million and take four years, was officially welcomed with smiles and handshakes at the ceremony. But bitterness remains here. Agent Orange is mentioned often in the news media, and victims are commemorated annually on Aug. 10, the day in 1961 when American forces first tested spraying it in Vietnam. The government objected to Olympics sponsorship this year by Dow Chemical, a leading producer of Agent Orange during the war. Many here have not hesitated to call the American program too little — it addresses only the one site — and very late.
“It’s a big step,” said Ngo Quang Xuan, a former Vietnamese ambassador to the United Nations. “But in the eyes of those who suffered the consequences, it’s not enough.”
Over a decade of war, the United States sprayed about 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, halting only after scientists commissioned by the Agriculture Department issued a report expressing concerns that dioxin showed “a significant potential to increase birth defects.” By the time the spraying stopped, Agent Orange and other herbicides had destroyed 2 million hectares, or 5.5 million acres, of forest and cropland, an area roughly the size of New Jersey.
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Military
While the U.S. military used the herbicide to defoliate the jungles of Southeast Asia, it sprayed the same chemicals to kill poison oak and other weeds in northern California.
Vietnam vets and widows are pushing to extend benefits to those stricken with glioblastoma after exposure.
Chris Hedges: Vietnam War, Like the Later Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, Was ‘One Long Atrocity’ (Video)
What if casualties don’t end on the battlefield but extend to future generations? Our reporting this year suggests the government may not want to know the answer.
Phil Cacioppo challenged the government’s findings on the chemical used extensively during the Vietnam War after the Veterans Administration rejected his claim for benefits. Six years later, the former Air Force radio repairman emerged the rare victor.
Neither the Navy nor the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has a comprehensive list of which ships went where during the Vietnam War. As a result, veterans themselves often have to prove their ships served in areas where Agent Orange was sprayed.
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