Agent Orange
In 1975, the victorious Viet Minh entered Saigon, the capital of the South, following a 30 year struggle against a range of international forces. For the first time, since its occupation by France in the late 19th century, Viet Nam was independent and no longer subject to the dictates of foreign powers.
However, while the lengthy and costly conflicts, which had resulted in the loss of 3 million Vietnamese lives, were over, they left in their wake a debilitating legacy of obstacles to the country’s future economic development.
Viet Nam had been subjected to an aerial bombardment three to four times greater than the total tonnage released during WWII but it was the use of chemical defoliants which has had the greater long-term detrimental impact on the country and its people. These defoliants had been used by the US military to strip away the omnipresent lush and abundant forests in the south and centre so the Vietnamese resistance could be better targeted.
While many defoliants were used it was the combination of napalm used to kill trees and vegetation and then Agent Orange to burn them, prior to their removal by bulldozers, which has had the greatest long term consequences.
Named after the orange strips on its container barrels, Agent Orange was a highly toxic chemical. In eight years, from 1962 to 1970, 1.4 billion hectares of land and forest - approximately 12 percent of Viet Nam’s total land area - were sprayed with 80 million litres of this chemical. As a result, 2.5 to 4.8 million people were exposed to the lethal effects of dioxin, an essential component of Agent Orange.
Although the Vietnamese tried to protect themselves from the fallout of Agent Orange, by covering their faces with towels drenched in water or even their own urine, many were directly contaminated.
As it fell, the dioxin also took root in the land and waters around, entering into the life cycles of the local plants, fish, animals and people. Many barrels of dioxin remain buried in the ground and there have been numerous accidental spillages, including the seepage of 22,000 litres of Agent Orange into a lake beside Biên Hòa town, home to 20,000 people. Tests have shown this area to be contaminated to a level 1,000 times that considered acceptable in the US.
At a more personal level, families with members disabled by exposure to Agent Orange, exist in an extremely precarious, economic situation. In a country, which was virtually destroyed by war and further enfeebled by the post-war US-led embargo, it is exceedingly difficult to provide the required care and attention for disabled family members.
The 2002 documentary Battle’s Poison Cloud introduces us to several of these families. In one scene, we meet Nguyên Canh whose granddaughter, an Agent Orange victim, has virtually no control over her limbs. At every meal Canh must first chew her granddaughter’s food until it is sufficiently soft for her to simply swallow when placed in her mouth. Canh worries for her family’s future after her passing, as her granddaughter will have no one to look after her with her daughter-in-law having to work hard in the rice fields to provide for their family.
Research carried out by the US Institute of Medicine (IOM) in 1994 and 1996 described the presence of ten diseases that could be linked to Agent Orange. Four of these diseases had sufficient evidence while the remaining six bore limited evidence of an association between the current ailments and exposure to herbicides.
Based on these reports, President Clinton approved compensation for those US personnel, who had served in Viet Nam, as well as their children should they become afflicted by any of the diseases described in the Institute of Medicine’s reports. However, no mention was made of Vietnamese Agent Orange victims.
A 2003 IOM report emphasised the possibility of undertaking extensive epidemiological research to examine the connections between herbicide use in Viet Nam and the health of Vietnamese citizens and US veterans. However, IOM’s call to the US government to fund such studies proved unsuccessful.
In January 2004, a case was initiated in the New York courts by the Vietnam Association of Agent orange/dioxin Victims and 5 individual victims to obtain compensation for the victims of Agent Orange. Their case was rejected in March 2005 as the judge ruled there was no prohibition on the use of herbicides in International Law. An appeal launched on 30 September 2005 was also rejected last year.
In the meantime, thousands of people disabled by Agent Orange continue to struggle with their disabilities without the economic resources they need to make their lives more bearable. However, they are not alone in their efforts as organisations located in Viet Nam, the US, UK and many other countries, are also working to obtain justice for the victims of Agent Orange.
If you too might be interested in finding out more about Agent Orange, its consequences and the ongoing efforts to obtain redress its victims as well as signing the petition to obtain redress for Agent Orange victims, please visit the following website www.lenaldis.co.uk for further information.
Photo: A UH-1D helicopter from the 336th Aviation Company sprays a defoliation agent on a dense jungle area in the Mekong delta (fromwikipedia)
Discussion
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Comment by: D_D
Mar 14th 2010 at 23:03
In 1975, the victorious Viet Cong entered Saigon?
Comment by: Justin Frewen
Mar 15th 2010 at 02:03
Hi D_D,
Thanks for your comment. And yes that is a fair observation. Viet Minh is not the correct name, as this was really the term for the Vietnamese who fought against the French and the Japanese. However, the term Viet Cong was used by the US etc - having been come up with by the South Vietnamese government under Diem as a general term to denote their opponents - in a derogatory manner. Viet Cong is an abbreviation of Vi?t Nam C?ng S?n (Vietnamese Communist) and was never used by the Vietnamese liberation forces themselves. Translated literally it means something close to Vietnamese commie. The correct name for the Vietnamese forces was the National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam or in Vietnamese M?t Tr?n Gi?i Phóng Mi?n Nam Vi?t Nam. I tend to use the term Viet Minh as it is relatively short and has a positive connotation rather than the negative meaning of Viet Cong. But it is not strictly correct and guess I should use the correct one in the future. Cheers,
Comment by: rc
Mar 19th 2010 at 12:03
According to Al Jazsrra’s People & Power report the US used biological weapons during the Korea war.
http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2010/03/201031761541794128.html