Vietnam Reporting Project fellow Thuy Vu, an Emmy award-winning anchor and reporter for CBS5, recently returned to her homeland of Vietnam to take an in-depth look at the impact of Agent Orange. This CBS5 Special Report explores the on-going health impact of Agent Orange, the toxin used by the US military to defoliate the jungles of Vietnam. The half-hour report airs on January 3, 2011 at 7pm.

During the Vietnam War, more than 20 million gallons of the dioxin-contaminated defoliant were dumped on Vietnam jungles, affecting its people and the soldiers who fought alongside American troops. The Vietnamese suspect the toxin is responsible for cancers, deformities and disabilities. While American soldiers have received health care for their Agent Orange related issues, the Vietnamese feel they’ve been abandoned by the US government.

Vietnam Revisited: A CBS5 Special Report from Vietnam Reporting Project on Vimeo.

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Directed and written by Marie-Monique Robin

There’s nothing they are leaving untouched: the mustard, the okra, the bringe oil, the rice, the cauliflower. Once they have established the norm: that seed can be owned as their property, royalties can be collected. We will depend on them for every seed we grow of every crop we grow. If they control seed, they control food, they know it – it’s strategic. It’s more powerful than bombs. It’s more powerful than guns. This is the best way to control the populations of the world. The story starts in the White House, where Monsanto often got its way by exerting disproportionate influence over policymakers via the “revolving door”. One example is Michael Taylor, who worked for Monsanto as an attorney before being appointed as deputy commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 1991. While at the FDA, the authority that deals with all US food approvals, Taylor made crucial decisions that led to the approval of GE foods and crops. Then he returned to Monsanto, becoming the company’s vice president for public policy.

Tran Van KHê : Choir for Vietnam

Music for the victims of Agent Orange.

This video is from the documentary “The World According to Monsanto.” It gives us a history of Agent Orange used in the Vietnam War, as well as used on American fields for several years for agriculture use as a herbicide. Monsanto brought us Agent Orange. Yet, farmers are still trusting this company’s assurance that GMOs are safe, that widespread use of Roundup is safe and that GM seed will save us all from an overpopulated planet. Seriously?

http://www.sonofafarmer.com/history-of-agent-orange/

A special series on the lingering effects of Agent Orange by the Cleveland Plain Dealer

http://www.cleveland.com/agentorange/

Monsanto Company History Overview

Monsanto is a US based agricultural and pharmaceutical monopoly, Monsanto Company is a producer of herbicides, prescription pharmaceutical drugs, and genetically engineered (GMO) seeds. The global Monsanto corporation has operated sales offices, manufacturing plants, and research facilities in more than 100 countries. Monsanto has the largest share of the global GMO crops market. In 2001 its crops accounted for 91% of the total area of GMO crops planted worldwide. Based on 2001 figures Monsanto was the second biggest seed company in the world, and the third biggest agrochemical company.

U.S. Veteran Dispatch Staff Report
November 1990 Issue

It is the war that will not end. It is the war that continues to stalk and claim its victims decades after the last shots were fired. It is the war of rainbow herbicides, Agents Orange, Blue, White, Purple, Green and Pink.

This never-ending legacy of the war in Vietnam has created among many veterans and their families deep feelings of mistrust of the U.S. government for its lack of honesty in studying the effects of the rainbow herbicides, particularly Agent Orange, and its conscious effort to cover up information and rig test results with which it does not agree.

Written by JOHN TRINH to dedicate to all the victims of Agent Orange

Film Statement:
“I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.” - Mahatma Gandhi

Synopsis:

“AGENT ORANGE: 30 YEARS LATER” is a drama-documentary about the victims of Agent Orange 30 years after the Viet Nam War.

Agent Orange is the code name for the major herbicide that was used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War to deny coverage (trees and bushes) of the Vietnamese guerrilla soldiers.

The film tells the story of several victims of Agent Orange – from the North to the South of Viet Nam – who were exposed to the substance when it was sprayed during the war. It  interweaves compelling interviews with images culled from the archives to tell the tales of horror of people, from babies to grandparents, male and female, North and South Viet Nam living with life-altering choices to make: pro-life or abortion, alien diseases, deformities, fear, loneliness, suicidal thoughts, pain, and poverty. It is more of a drama than a reportage, or an observation.

UNITED STATES – VIETNAM
SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE
ON HUMAN HEALTH
AND ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS
OF AGENT ORANGE/DIOXINS
MARCH 3-6, 2002
HANOI, VIETNAM  LINK

THE FIRST THINGS I SEE are the tails of the planes. They jut like hundreds of dorsal fins rising from prehistoric fish that have been lined up by a butcher on a massive table of thin brown grass. It is a surreal sight, and I allow my eyes to settle into the rhythm of motion—not quite focused, not quite gone—watching the rows of sharp metal ridges whir past at fifty miles per hour.