Vietnam in the Aftermath of a Chemical Holocaust
Posted: 04/03/2013 5:54 pm

The Geneva Agreement of 1954 ended the French colonial rule of Vietnam. However, the Eisenhower administration subverted the idea of a united and independent Vietnam. It funded a puppet government in Saigon to resist Hanoi, thus precipitating a twenty-year American War in Indochina.

In 1961, president John Kennedy approved the use of herbicides to defoliate the dense jungles of Vietnam. This decision turned a bitterly fought war into an illegal, immoral, and humiliating contest for the United States and an ecological catastrophe for Vietnam.

The Americans sprayed the forests and rice fields of Vietnam with Agent Orange, a concoction of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D, two exceedingly toxic weed killers. One of them, 2,4,5-T, was contaminated by TCDD-dioxin, the most potent molecule in the industrial world’s chemical arsenal. The chemical warfare lasted until 1970 when president Richard Nixon renounced the first use of “incapacitating chemical weapons” and “any use of biological and toxin weapons.”

In 1977, the Linnean Society of London published a study on the “Ecological Effects of Pesticides.” Arthur H. Westing, a dioxin expert working for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, authored a chapter about the “Ecological effects of the military use of herbicides.”

Westing theorized that it would take centuries to undo the ecological damage the Agent Orange inflicted on Vietnam. He suggested that more than 200 pounds of TCDD-dioxin “was injected into the South Vietnamese environment as a concomitant of the military spraying.”

Westing concluded that “chemical warfare with anti-plant agents [herbicides] is pernicious because its ecological and social ramifications are unavoidably widespread, long-lasting, and severe.”

Fred A. Wilcox, professor of writing at Ithaca College, expanded the insightful work of Westing. He spent about 30 years studying the effects of Agent Orange. He started with the fate of the American soldiers who sprayed the Agent Orange over Vietnam. His 1983 book, Waiting for an Army to Die, denounced the deception of the Pentagon and the industry that ignored the Vietnam veterans until most of them died. They simply did not want to implicate the manufacturers of Agent Orange with the dioxin harm of their weed killers, which were also sprayed in the United States for decades. Indeed, 2,4-D is still in the American farmers’ armory.

His Scorched Earth (Seven Story Books, 2011) completes the story of why, in fact, the spraying of the Agent Orange was pernicious, especially to Vietnam and its people. He visited Vietnam where he interviewed soldiers who had been sprayed by Agent Orange. “I wanted to listen to their stories,” he said, “and to hear if their accounts were similar to those of American veterans.” That process led him to Vietnamese who have been trying to survive “serious illnesses” and the “sorrow of knowing that their plight, their destiny, is irrevocable.” He also talked to medical doctors trying to cope with the monstrous health effects Agent Orange left on its victims.

In 2008, one of those doctors, Nguyen Trong Nhan, sent a letter to the American Studies Association in which he reported the following:

Agent Orange destroyed more than six million acres of forest. This ecocide had deadly effects on farming and food.

“Vietnamese women,” he wrote, “have experienced disorders and complications during pregnancy, including miscarriages, still births, premature births, and severe fetal malformations.” But the worst thing of all, he added, was that the dioxin harm lasts for generations.

Finally, Dr. Nhan said, it was a pity the American courts dismissed the 2004 Vietnamese lawsuit against the Agent Orange companies. That, to Dr. Nhan, was disrespect for “truth and justice.”

Another witness to the painful story Wilcox tells is Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, commander of all American naval forces in Vietnam. Zumwalt used Agent Orange along the banks of rivers and canals. However, Zumwalt changed when he returned home. The death of his son from cancer, which the admiral connected to his son’s service in the spraying of the herbicides, set him on course to discovery. He accused the government and the industry of covering up the truth about the effects of Agent Orange.

Wilcox is showing that Agent Orange is responsible for harming more than three million Vietnamese, including 500,000 children. He says the veterans of Vietnam and America suffer from the same deformities and cancers. Vietnam, he adds, is enduring the “aftermath of a chemical holocaust.”

The story of Wilcox is revealing. Yes, Vietnam is in great pain, but Vietnam is also opening its doors to its former enemy.

Read Scorched Earth. It is eloquent, thought provoking, absorbing, daring, moral, and necessary. It is a jolt to historical amnesia. It tells what chemical warfare did to Vietnam — and, to a lesser degree, America.

Time has come for both the American government and the industry to admit responsibility for the harm of Agent Orange. Such an admission would lead to better environmental protection — in this country and the world. It may even strengthen international law and human rights.

In a special school, about 11 kilometres southwest of Hanoi, more than 100 students learn to read, write and count, and also pick up vocational skills such as embroidery, sewing and making decorative plastic flowers.

It is hoped these skills will help them set up a small business in future, as they are unlikely to get traditional employment after “graduating” from this Vietnamese school.

The children, along with 40 war veterans, are residents of the Vietnam Friendship Village in Van Canh Commune in Ha Tay province. They all suffer from mental and physical ailments caused by exposure to Agent Orange, the herbicide that US military forces sprayed on lands in Vietnam and Laos between 1962 and 1971 to remove forest cover, destroy crops and clear vegetation.

One of the world’s most toxic poisons, Agent Orange – so named because it came in chemical drums marked with orange stripes – is linked to cancers, diabetes, birth defects and other disabilities. It’s a bitter and lasting legacy of the Vietnam war. “The Agent Orange victims are among the poorest in Vietnam,” says Dang Vu Dung, director of the Friendship Village.

Not only are the victims unable to find jobs to support themselves, Dung says, the children’s parents – most Agent Orange victims themselves – spend a lot of money for years, or even a lifetime, on therapy and medication.

According to Oanh, a teacher at the village for 15 years, the children usually stay for three to four years. Some only see their families just once a year as most live in remote provinces and can’t afford the trip to Hanoi.

Oanh, who has a degree in special education, says it takes a lot of patience to teach the children as they often don’t listen and sometimes run away from the classroom.

“But after some time, they get used to this environment and stay in the classroom,” she says.
We will continue to remind everybody that chemical warfare should not happen again
Mai Duc Chinh, Vava spokesman

The children learn to draw, colour, count and sing, and also study their country’s history. They are also taught personal hygiene, such as how to wash their hands, brush their teeth, and take a bath. They make handicrafts, such as paper flowers, silk wallets and embroidered pictures, and sell these products to supplement the donations that support the village.

To be alive and in school, the children are luckier than the thousands of Agent Orange victims who have either died or been disabled and have no hope of supporting themselves.

The military spraying exposed about 4.8 million Vietnamese – soldiers, villagers, their children and grandchildren – to the chemical.

The US government denied responsibility over the chemical warfare for years. But in August last year, it announced the allocation of US$43 million to clean up its former military base in Danang. Prior to that, Hillary Rodham Clinton, then the US secretary of state who visited Vietnam in July last year, called it “a legacy issue that we remain concerned about and we have increased our financial commitment to dealing with it”.

But more than the clean-up, the victims are hoping for much needed compensation. Most of them depend on a monthly government subsidy of US$19, which isn’t enough to cover medical bills.

“Our government doesn’t have enough money to support all victims,” says Mai Duc Chinh, a spokesman for the Vietnamese Association for Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA), a humanitarian organisation formed in 2003 by a group of Vietnamese doctors, veterans and other advocates.

The Vietnamese government, local organisations such as VAVA, and several international groups have extended assistance to victims, and since 2004 have donated US$7.5 million in cash and kind.

The Friendship Village, set up by an American war veteran in 1988, has been one of the beneficiaries of generous donors. It receives international aid managed by a committee with representatives from the US, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Vietnam. Similar centres can be found in other provinces of Vietnam.

The village spends about US$290,000 a year on school maintenance, salaries and treatment of the war veterans. Dung says about 20 per cent more is needed, just to cover inflation and the rising cost of maintenance. He adds that more financial aid is needed for the students to use as seed capital for a small business after they leave the village.

There have been several success stories from the village. One student graduated and went on to journalism school, while a couple of students who met at the village got married and set up a business making decorative flowers.

“The [Agent Orange] victims live a hard life,” says Chinh. “We will continue to remind everybody that chemical warfare should not happen again.”

This article was first published in Asian Scientist magazine. asianscientist.com

Viet Nam News

Publication Date : 15-02-2013

The Vietnam war ended nearly 40 years ago, but its effect does not. Many soldiers, with great efforts and sacrifice, are joining hands to help national construction and ease the pain of loss.

For many soldiers, it is good luck to return home safely from the battlefields. But for some, such luck turns into great pain upon seeing their children born with birth defects as they have to bear the impact of dioxin, the toxic chemical in Agent Orange, herbicides sprayed by the US during the war.

Khong Thi Thuy, Director of Phu Quy charity centre in northern Bac Giang province said her heart was broken when seeing these children. She was determined to help them and treat them as her own children.

In 2009, Thuy and her husband, themselves having a child suffering from the effect of Agent Orange/dioxin, established the Phu Quy charity centre. By now they have cared for over 200 child victims of Agent Orange. After receiving vocational training, many of them are working for the centre.

Thuy unveiled that sometimes her centre run out of rice and money so she and other staffers stay up all night to sew to have money for rice.

She recalled that on some occasions, the staff must care for 4-5 sick children at the same time. “It is really, really hard. But I think in order to do something for society and our friends, we should forget ourselves. If we just think of our own interests, it comes to nothing.”

Bac Giang authorities provided the Phu Quy charity centre with 1.3 hectares of land, and many donors are also making contributions to keep it running.

Dong Khanh Vinh, Chairman of Bac Giang provincial Agent Orange Victims’ Association, said although most of us retire and battle with diseases, we are committed to sharing with our comrades, especially their children, with all our heart, conscience and responsibility. The more we care, the more we pay tribute to our fellows.

The centre has received heartfelt kindness from war veterans across the country and foreign organisations via the Foreign Ministry and Vietnamese embassies worldwide to make it a cosy home for children with AO effect.

Hatfield is providing support to the Government of Vietnam to develop a plan to remediate extensive dioxin contamination at the Bien Hoa airbase in Viet Nam. The plan will review existing knowledge describing the extent and nature of dioxin contamination throughout the airbase, data gaps if any, and recommended remedial options. Hatfield is providing a senior advisor who will work collaboratively with Vietnamese authorities and other international scientists to develop the plan that will result in either the remediation or removal of contaminated soil and sediment from the base.

The Bien Hoa project is part of a larger GEF/UNDP-funded programme being implemented by the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) entitled “Environmental Remediation of Dioxin Contaminated Hotspots in Viet Nam”. The project is designed to minimize disruption of ecosystems and reduce health risks for people potentially exposed to dioxin contaminated sites throughout Viet Nam. This project is contributing towards a broader goal of the Vietnamese government to “overcome the consequences of toxic chemicals used in the war in Viet Nam”, and is focussed on the following three airbases known to be contaminated with dioxin: Bien Hoa, Da Nang and Phu Cat. MONRE as the national implementing partner is implementing the project in close collaboration with the Ministry of Defense (MOD) and People’s Committees in the three (3) Provinces where the hotspots are located. Expected outcomes of the project are: (i) Dioxins in core hotspot areas are contained and remediated; (ii) Landuse on and around hotspots is adjusted to reduce risks and contribute towards environmental recovery; (iii) National regulations and institutional capacities in Viet Nam pertaining to chemical contamination are strengthened.

Viet Nam suffered from extensive dioxin contamination as a result of widespread use of herbicides, often contaminated with dioxin, that were used by American forces during the armed conflict between 1961-1971.

For more information:

Mr. Thomas Boivin, Managing Director
HATFIELD CONSULTANTS MEKONG
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For over three decades, the US has claimed that no proof exists that the use of Agent Orange by their military during the Vietnam War is the cause of significant health complications in Vietnamese citizens who may have been exposed to the herbicide.

Vietnamese scientists, shortly after the cessation of hostilities between the two countries in 1975, described an increase in human birth defects and other health-related issues in areas sprayed with Agent Orange. The Vietnamese were convinced that Agent Orange was the prime stimulus for observed abnormalities in human birth and immunological disruptions causing deterioration in human health.

The US refused to accept data generated by Vietnamese scientists on the basis that their research did not meet Western standards of rigor. As a consequence, a stalemate has existed for these many years between the two countries, and has been a continuing barrier to completely normalize diplomatic relations between the US and Vietnam.

The Global Times published an article, “Agent Orange cleanup overdue, and not enough for real justice,” on August 27. The article provides a correct overview of the problem of dioxin contamination, and the long-term activities and costs associated with cleanup objectives.

My question, however, is this: If the US maintains and advances the mantra of that there is no proof that Agent Orange or dioxin has caused any human health issues in Vietnam, why then is the US offering financial assistance to Vietnam to support cleanup efforts at Da Nang International Airport, which will undoubtedly lead to additional funding for cleanup at other former US military bases in Vietnam labeled as dioxin hot spots?

I was hopeful, and perhaps naïve, that the US had finally come to the conclusion that Agent Orange or dioxin was detrimental to human health, but did not wish to categorize any assistance to Vietnam as compensation per se, thus avoiding the possibility of admitting guilt, and perhaps leading to legal action.

Although the US assistance may be too little, too late, it does form a framework to move forward bilaterally in addressing dioxin contamination throughout Southern Vietnam. However, there may be a more calculated rationale for the US to finally see their way clear to offer much needed assistance in addressing Vietnam’s contamination problem.

The freeing up of US dollars for Da Nang may be less encompassed by altruistic motives, and more by self-serving tendencies oriented toward the US view of political relationships in the Asia-Pacific region.

China is gradually enhancing its presence in the Asia-Pacific region. The South China Sea region has become a growing concern to both China and Vietnam, given natural resources therein. By offering much needed financial support to Vietnam in its addressing of dioxin contamination, the US, I believe, sees a significant advantage to such actions.

On the one hand, the US receives a positive reaction from the world community, albeit somewhat guarded, for finally offering much needed assistance to Vietnam. And on the other hand, the US receives favorable diplomatic positioning within Vietnam for their long-awaited movement toward righting a wrong caused through the use of Agent Orange during the conflict.

Such positioning will eventually lead to a US military presence in Vietnam, and establish a counter to China’s growing influence in the region.

It is not inconceivable that the US administration has, in fact, moved away, even slightly, from their decades-old mantra of “no proof,” and is now cognizant and accepting of the potential dangers of dioxin contamination.

This position can facilitate cooperative efforts at contaminant reduction and allow significant reduction in the potential for human-dioxin contact, and the resulting negative health consequences. But I suspect seeing the US stance in this light is, perhaps, overly generous.

As to which reason is more significant in this new cooperative approach of dealing with Vietnam’s dioxin problem, is it a US recognition of the dangers of dioxin or US desire to befriend Vietnam as an eventual buffer to China, does it really matter?

For those Vietnamese who have and are suffering as a result of the wartime actions of Agent Orange use by the US military, the geopolitics of the region are of little consequence. The daily lives of many are intermingled with contaminated lands and food. Harm reduction is paramount for them. This alone is worthy of any efforts the US and Vietnam employ to address the lingering legacy of Agent Orange.

The author is an environmental scientist in British Columbia, Canada. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

Binh Dinh Province’s Phu Cat Military Airport was removed from the list of dioxin/Agent Orange hotspots in Vietnam on Saturday.

More than 7,000 cubic meters of dioxin-contaminated soil found at the central airport with concentrations higher than 1,000 parts per trillion have been safely contained in a landfill. The dioxin was contained in a defoliant sprayed by the US Army during the Vietnam War.

“This Phu Cat landfill was constructed in full compliance with national regulations and met international standards. The landfill stops spreading of the dioxin to the environment and eliminates exposure of the local population,” the United Nations Development Program Vietnam said in a statement.

The landfill was part of a US$5 million UNDP and GEF (Global Environment Facility) project “Environmental Remediation of Dioxin Contaminated Hotspots in Vietnam”, launched in July, 2010 and implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources’ Office of National Steering Committee on Overcoming of the Consequences of Toxic Chemicals used by US during the war in Vietnam (Office 33).

Phu Cat was one of three identified dioxin hotspots, together with Da Nang and Bien Hoa airports. These airbases were highly contaminated because the toxic defoliant was stored or handled there during the war.

“The levels of dioxin concentration in these hotspots are as high as 365,000 parts per trillion (ppt) of international toxicity equivalents (I-TEQ). This is hundred of times the required clean-up level by national and international standards,” according to a UNDP report.

“Dioxin is no longer leaking from the site and the dioxin will not have an impact on the environment and people living in the surrounding area,” the Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People’s Army) newspaper quoted Le Ke Son, director of Office 33’, as saying.

“Together with the United States, UNDP and other partners, we will continue to remediate dioxin contamination in Bien Hoa and Da Nang airports,” he said.

The US Army sprayed some 80 million liters of Agent Orange containing 366 kilograms of the highly toxic dioxin over 30,000 square miles of southern Vietnam between 1961 and 1971.

Between 2.1 to 4.8 million Vietnamese citizens were directly exposed to Agent Orange and other chemicals that have been linked to cancers, birth defects and other chronic diseases during the Vietnam War that ended in April 1975.
Thanh Nien News

Sunday 12 August 2012

Forty years after war ended, Washington begins decontamination of worst-affected areas in Vietnam

Tran Thi Hoan, 26, studied medicine only to be told that she couldn’t become a doctor because of a war fought 20 years before she was born. The ostensible reason was that she had no legs or left hand, but the main reason, and the cause of so much misery blighting the lives of millions of other Vietnamese, is the 20 million gallons of Agent Orange sprayed in her country by US forces in the Sixties.

She is one of three million Vietnamese affected by the dioxin in Agent Orange – a poison that has caused untold cancers and an estimated 150,000 birth defects – which continue down the generations to this day.

Last week, 40 years after the war ended, the US began a programme to try to decontaminate the worst-affected parts of the country, but even if the belated action grows into something far larger, it can never deal with the dreadful legacy of Agent Orange.

In a museum in the suburbs of Saigon, there is an exhibit where hundreds of photos of deformed adults, children and babies hang next to a copy of a letter which Tran Thi Hoan wrote to Barack Obama in 2009. After describing how doctors discouraged her from starting a family, fearing her children would be born with similar defects, she asked if the President would “spare a little time to resolve this forgotten problem”, after decades of quibbling over the issue in Washington.

Between 1962 and 1971, the US air force dropped around 20 million gallons of the herbicide during Operation Ranch Hand. Around 4,000 villages and communes in South Vietnam were sprayed, leaving at least 4.5 million Vietnamese exposed to the substance, according to census reports taken at the time. Five million acres of farmland were destroyed in the process (the size of Yorkshire, Lancashire and Northumberland combined), of which two million remain barren today.

Its claimed purpose was to defoliate the forest canopy that covered the Viet Cong’s troop movements and supply lines. Early on in the campaign, US planes dropped pamphlets written in Vietnamese assuring farmers that the chemicals were harmless to humans and animals. In spite of alleged warnings from chemical companies that the herbicide was potentially harmful, the US reportedly dropped the chemical at a higher concentration than what was recommended for destroying foliage.

As a result, the Vietnam Red Cross estimates that three million Vietnamese were left suffering from spina bifida, Parkinson’s and heart diseases as a result. Since then, at least 150,000 children have been born with birth defects, a number which the Vietnamese government claims could be as high as half a million.

Various court cases and pleas to the US government by Vietnamese victims have proved fruitless, whereas American veterans exposed to Agent Orange have had their appeals answered. Families of former US soldiers suffering because of dioxin poisoning get up to $1,500 (£956) a month in compensation, while Vietnamese families who have been affected receive around 80,000 dong a month (just over $5) in government support for their disabled children.

In 1984, chemical companies that manufactured the herbicide settled a class-action suit by US veterans for $180m. Then, in 2010, 200,000 veterans filed claims based on a policy change by the Department of Veterans Affairs which gave them easier access to compensation for health problems caused by exposure to the defoliant.

Vietnamese victims filed a similar lawsuit in 2004. The case brought by the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange against the chemical companies failed, with the court ruling that the herbicide was used to protect US troops against ambush and was not intended to be used against human populations. The manufacturers were also protected by a contract with the US government which employed them to manufacture and supply them with the herbicide during the war.

For years, Washington has avoided discussing the Agent Orange-related health problems among the Vietnamese and the need for more scientific research into the problem. Since 2007 it has given about $60m for environmental restoration and social services in Vietnam, but last week’s project is its first direct involvement in decontaminating areas affected by dioxin.

The $43m project, which began last Thursday, is expected to be completed in four years. It covers a 47-acre site in the coastal city of Da Nang, one of many “hot spots” that have been identified on the perimeter of former US bases where Agent Orange was handled; 50 years on, dioxins still into the surrounding soil, posing a risk to the population.

Even though this is a step forward by the US in a relationship with Vietnam that has been hampered by the issue, the lasting legacy of Agent Orange will need a far more substantial input to repair the damage. In 2007, the non-partisan Aspen Institute determined that it would cost the US government $300m over 10 years to eliminate the remaining health threat and improve the lives of disabled people in Vietnam.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
Martin Luther King Jr.
US civil rights leader & clergyman (1929 – 1968)

Remnant of War: Vietnam, 37 years later
It’s been 37 years since the end of the Vietnam War. The war was senseless. War is wrong. No question. As a veteran, I can attest to its nonsensical virtues.
One ongoing legacy of that war, Agent Orange, continues to destroy the lives of millions of Vietnamese. During a recent trip to Ho Chi Minh City with a group of returning American veterans, we visited Tu Du Hospital’s Peace Village. Tu Du Hospital has cared for Agent Orange victims for a number of years. I sometimes comment that the victims who are being cared for in these hospitals and centers are the fortunate ones. Immediate medical attention is available. Medicine, food, and shelter are often in ample supply. This is the case at Tu Du. However, some of these victims are the worst of the worst. Birth defects and disease which require constant monitoring and care. Many of these children know no other family. Most are orphans. All are loving, all have great physical as well as emotional needs and all are Victims of Agent Orange who must be helped.
Living in the same city which has one of several dioxin laden “hot spots” in Vietnam, I am constantly reminded of the devastation that continues as a result of Agent Orange. Over 5,000 victims of Agent Orange live in Da Nang. Well into its third generation, the aftermath of that war continues and there is no end in sight.
I would think after all of these years, however, that the misery would start to subside. Sure, there have been some small victories. The US Veteran receives disability compensation if we suffer from one of 15 presumptive illnesses and were in country during the war. Female Veterans who served in Vietnam and have children born with spina bifida also receive benefits. Far from ample. But benefits nonetheless.
What about the millions of Vietnamese victims who suffer from these and other illnesses that have been directly linked to Agent Orange? The US Government has done next to nothing, in this regard. The manufacturers of Agent Orange have done nothing at all. True, the US has started to do something meaningful in Da Nang while it attempts to remove some of the most toxic dioxin in the world; the by-product of a hastened manufacturing process employed by Monsanto, Dow, and the rest. This ensured higher profit margins which was all that these corporations were interested in. They had no concern whatsoever for human life or the environment. To this day, their focus remains on profits. Seemingly at any cost.
Today, both of these insidious multi-nationals continue to brag about their love of the environment, their concern for humanity, their perceived need to solve the hunger crisis. Monsanto owns and sells the majority of genetically modified seeds in the world, attempting to convince the Vietnamese to purchase and use these “safe” products. Just like they said that Agent Orange was safe, they attempt to refute scientific evidence and an overwhelming voice in the scientific community stating that genetically modified seeds and organisms are indeed unsafe! How dare they return to Vietnam after all of the death and destruction they were responsible for here.
Dow Chemical, another manufacturer of Agent Orange as well as Napalm and, the largest single owner of Superfund Sites in the US, arranged for a multi-year, multi-million dollar sponsorship deal with the International Olympic Committee. Claiming their positive contributions to a green planet! And yes, another large player in the GMO industry. Seeking more profit taking in Vietnam.
Agent Orange and Genetically Modified Seeds and Organisms are linked. If you examine the components of a recently introduced GM Corn (by Dow), it actually contains some of the same ingredients as did Agent Orange. This would, so the manufacturer claims, enable it to withstand higher doses of products like Round-up.
Let us not continue to be silent.

Chuck Palazzo is an American veteran who lives in Vietnam. He is a founding member of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 160 in Vietnam http//vfp-vn.ning.com/ and the Agent Orange Action Group http: //aoag.org/. Chuck can be reached at chuck_pal@yahoo.com.

US project to clean up dioxin contamination in Danang
VietNamNet Bridge – Two US companies have won two contracts as part of the Environmental Remediation of Dioxin Contamination at Danang Airport project, which is a joint venture between the US and Vietnamese Government.

Accordingly, the US Agency for International Development (USAID) handed over a US$8.34 million contract to CDM Smith, a US firm headquartered in Massachusetts, for construction management and oversight of the entire project in coordination with the Vietnamese Ministry of National Defense.

USAID also gave a US$17 million contract to Tetra Tech Inc., another U.S. firm headquartered in California, for the excavation and construction components of the project.

The Environmental Remediation of Dioxin Contamination at Danang Airport Project involves cleaning up around 73,000 cubic metres of contaminated soil and sediment at the airport.

The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2016.