Viet Nam Human Rights
Agent Orange: Damage & Responsibility
21/8/14
The
US – Vietnam is now
far over but its negative results have been lingering in the daily life. One of
the most severe things is the effect of Agent Orange.
Agent
Orange was a powerful mixture of chemical defoliants used by U.S. military
forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover for North Vietnamese
troops, as well as crops that might be used to feed them. The U.S. program of defoliation, codenamed Operation
Ranch Hand, sprayed more than 19 million gallons of herbicides over 4.5 million
acres of land in Vietnam
from 1961 to 1972. Agent Orange, which contained the chemical dioxin, was the
most commonly used of the herbicide mixtures, and the most effective. It was
later revealed to cause serious health issues–including tumors, birth defects,
rashes, psychological symptoms and cancer–among returning U.S. servicemen
and their families as well as among the Vietnamese population.
From
1961 to 1972, the U.S.
military conducted a large-scale defoliation program aimed at destroying the
forest and jungle cover used by enemy North Vietnamese troops fighting against U.S. and South
Vietnamese forces in the US-Vietnam War. U.S. aircraft
were deployed to spray powerful mixtures of herbicides around roads, rivers,
canals and military bases, as well as on crops that might be used to supply
enemy troops. During this process, crops and water sources used by the
non-combatant peasant population of South Vietnam could also be hit. In
all, Operation Ranch Hand deployed more than 19 million gallons of herbicides
over 4.5 million acres of land.
Questions
regarding Agent Orange arose in the United States
after an increasing number of returning Vietnam veterans and their families
began to report a range of afflictions, including rashes and other skin
irritations, miscarriages, psychological symptoms, Type-2 diabetes, birth
defects in children and cancers such as Hodgkin’s disease, prostate cancer and
leukemia.
In 1979, a class
action lawsuit was filed on behalf of 2.4 million veterans who were exposed to
Agent Orange during their service in Vietnam. Five years later, in an
out-of-court-settlement, seven large chemical companies that manufactured the
herbicide agreed to pay $180 million in compensation to the veterans or their
next of kin. Various challenges to the settlement followed, including lawsuits
filed by some 300 veterans, before the U.S. Supreme Court confirmed it in 1988.
By that time, the settlement had risen to some $240 million including interest.
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Agent Orange Act, which
mandated that some diseases associated with defoliants (including non-Hodgkin’s
lymphomas, soft tissue sarcomas and chloracne) be treated as the result of
wartime service and helped codify the VA’s response to veterans with conditions
related to their exposure to Agent Orange.
Agent
Orange affected Vietnam
in a number of ways. The spraying of the dioxin-contaminated herbicide is
believed to have led to a whole range of illnesses in the
population, as the Vietnamese breathed the vapors or were directly exposed to
the liquid itself, or simply went about eating subsequently from a contaminated
food chain during the years of the spraying. Others were or continue to
be exposed to the dioxin at one of the existing hotspots in southern Vietnam.
Vietnamese have experienced many illnesses that have been found to be
associated with dioxin, everything from chloracne to Hodgkins Disease.
But
Agent Orange may be even more pernicious. It is believed to have affected
a new generations of Vietnamese, creating a wide range of disabilities
among the children and even grandchildren of those exposed. It is
possible that the last victims of the war in Vietnam haven’t yet been born.
Neither
of these impacts was intended. What was intended was the destruction of the jungle and
crop land, and in this, too, Agent Orange has had devastating
effects. Vast swaths of the Vietnamese countryside were laid waste, a
result that will take another century to fully heal.
Meanwhile, the dioxin contaminant in
Agent Orange lives on, though by now limited to 28 known and suspected “hot spots” where
the herbicides were handled and stored. To reduce the impact on human
health, this dioxin must be remediated from the
Vietnamese environment.
In addition to the
massive environmental impact of the U.S. defoliation program in Vietnam, that
nation has reported that some 400,000 people were killed or maimed as a result
of exposure to herbicides like Agent Orange. In addition, Vietnam claims
half a million children have been born with serious birth defects, while as
many 2 million people are suffering from cancer or other illness caused by
Agent Orange.
The
U.S.
government, however, has dismissed these figures as unreliable and inflated.
In 2004, a group of Vietnamese citizens filed a class-action lawsuit against more than 30 chemical companies, including the same ones that settled with the U.S. veterans in 1984. The suit, which sought billions of dollars worth of damages, claimed that Agent Orange and its poisonous effects left a legacy of health problems and that its use constituted a violation of international law. In March 2005, a federal judge in Brooklyn, New York, dismissed the suit; another U.S. court rejected a final appeal in 2008.
The
U.S.
government is trying to avoid their sins, their responsibility for what they
had done wrongfully. So is this the democracy what the US is trying to
promote worldwide. What a shame! I think the civilized international community
should give more efforts to force the US Gov to do compensate for Vietnamese AO
victims./.
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All comments [ 10 ]
I am so ashamed of what the US has done and is doing to this day. It is controlled by truly evil people
The American troop were WAR CRIMES, simple as that!
Americans need to open their eyes to what their government did in their name and start paying out compensation to the injured at the very least
This is absolutely shameful people should not be living in these circumstances with no help from their own or US government! These are the very people whose 'human rights' have been infringed and, something must surely be done!
america can stoop to any depth to win ,whether they use atomic or chemical weapon doesnt matter. they should pay vietnamese same compensation as they would pay their own people.
We must do somethings to raise public awareness of AO/dioxin all around the world and calling for more support for victims.
We really need support from international friends to aid the lawsuit against 37 US chemical companies which sprayed the toxic chemical during the war in Vietnam.
Public opinions in and outside the country have forced the US government to detoxify dioxin-contaminated areas as well as provide financial support for AO victims to assess medical checkups and treatment
Many of the victims have died, while millions of their descendants are living with deformities and diseases due to the effects of the chemical
The US Gov, you're running out of time to do right things to fix your war sins. Just think of it once more, if there were American who suffered the effects of AO.
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