AGENT ORANGE MAN (Better Living Through Chemistry)

Remnant of War: Vietnam, 37 years later
Chuck Palazzo
Da Nang, Viet Nam
June 20, 2012

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.

Rehabilitation of Mangrove forests destroyed by toxic chemicals during the war in South Vietnam

Dr. Vo Quy, Centre for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies (CRES)

Vietnam National University, Ha Noi, Viet Nam

The war has ended for 38 years . Although Vietnam has attained miraculous changes in many fields, the country remains blighted by toxin which are not only harmful to environment but also affect seriously health, causing many potential dangerous diseases which heredity factors. These diseases have made people sickened , suffer interminable pains and deep psychological wounds together with prolonged and profound social consequences.

During ten years from 1961 to 1971 , the US military sprayed about 80 million liters of toxins, 61% of which were Agent Orange containing 366 kg dioxin over about 26,000 villages with area of more than 3.06 million ha (86% of which were sprayed more than 2 times, 11% were sprayed more than 10 times.

A Chemical War without End: Agent Orange in Vietnam

Marie-Hélène Lavallard*

The Vietnam War (1961-1975) is known for the massive bombings of North Vietnam. More insidious, however, yet less well-known to the general public, was the chemical war waged from 1961 to 1971against South Vietnam. An immense environmental disaster and a human catastrophe taking numerous forms: health, economic, socio-cultural …, it had dramatic consequences which are still felt today. The American government and the chemical companies involved have eluded their responsibilities. For years, a conspiracy of silence has obscured the toxicity of the defoliants used. Those responsible have the effrontery to continue denying it today. Humanitarian aid is incommensurate with the needs. It is at the government level that support for Vietnam must be organized and the demand for just reparations must be made.

06 tháng ba năm 2012
Tác giả:
Tiến sĩ Wayne Dwernychuk
Nhà khoa học môi
trường British Columbia Canada

Từ năm 1961 đến năm 1971, quân đội Hoa Kỳ đã rải hơn 77 triệu lít thuốc diệt cỏ xuống miền Nam Việt Nam thông qua chiến dịch mang tên “Chiến dịch Ranch Hand”. Người Việt Nam cho biết từ đầu trong chiến dịch nàylà sức khỏe con người đã bị ảnh hưởng rất nghiêm trọng do việc phun thuốc khai quang trên diện rộng. Chất độc da cam, hỗn hợp 1:1 của 2,4-D và 2,4,5-T, là loại thuốc diệt cỏ đã được sử dụng nhiều nhất.
Chính phủ Hoa Kỳ vẫn vin vào câu thần chú suốt hàng thập kỷ của mình là không có một chứng cứ khoa học nào rõ ràng chứng minh được rằng việc sử dụng Chất độc da cam làm tăng số lượng trẻ bị dị tật bẩm sinh ở Việt Nam hay liên quan đến các vấn đề khác về sức khỏe con người ở Việt Nam. Các quan chức của chính phủ Hoa Kỳ vẫn không sẵn lòng thừa nhận các cuộc nghiên cứu/quan sát ở Việt Nam là đủ chính xác để có thể quy các loại thuốc diệt cỏ mà Hoa Kỳ sử dụng tác động đến sức khỏe con người, chủ yếu là do các quan ngại về trách nhiệm/bồi thường.

Agent Orange Action Group is pleased to welcome this original article by John Pilger a renowned writer, broadcaster and film-maker whose documentaries have won prestigious awards from many countries; his contribution to our pages is appreciated.
-Len Aldis

February 24, 2012
On 13 February, a French court found the Monsanto company guilty of poisoning a farmer, Paul Francois, who developed neurological problems after working with one of Monsanto’s weedkiller. The court found that Monsanto had failed to provide proper warning on the product label. When I read that news item, some 40 years vanished. I was back in Vietnam in a fishing village called Son Tra. The American military ‘strategy’ was that the people of Son Tra would be more ‘secure’ if all their basic vegetation was stripped away. This would ‘deny cover to any infiltrating enemy elements’.

8 February 2012
Len Aldis. Chairman
Agent Orange Action Group

On 28th October we at Agent Orange Action Group sent a call to all concerned at the power that Monsanto has over our food with its GM Seeds, and the devastation it has caused to millions with its Agent Orange, particularly its use on Vietnam for a period of Ten-Years. We made a call for all who were able to attend the Annual General Meeting of Monsanto that was to be held on 24th January 2012 in St Louis. To express their concerns be it the US Vietnam Veterans who are still suffering from Agent Orange and in struggle to obtain justice for themselves and their families, the Farmers who have had to campaign to grow the crops they wish to grow without Monsanto’s GM ruining their crops, the people very worried if the food they put on their table is safe, safe from Monsanto’s GM, and many others, organisations and individuals who have been campaigning against Monsanto for many years.

February 2, 2012
Dr. Wayne Dwernychuk
Environmental Scientist
British Columbia
Canada
“Because the material was to be used on the ‘enemy’, none of us were overly concerned.”
Dr J. Clary,research scientist with the Chemical Weapons Branch of the US Air Force
From 1961 to 1971 over 77 million litres of herbicide were dispensed over southern Viet Nam by the US military through the code-named ‘Operation Ranch Hand’ (http://www.stellman.com/jms/Stellman1537.pdf and http://www.hatfieldgroup.com/UserFiles/File/ContaminantMonitoringAgentOrange/VietNamHighlights/SprayLines.PDF) . The Vietnamese reported early on during the operation that human health was being adversely affected by widespread dispersal of defoliants. Agent Orange, a 1:1 mixture of 2,4,-D and 2,4,5-T, was the most prevalent herbicide used (http://www.agentorangerecord.com/home/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange).

12 January 2012

The Director Monsanto
Mr Nguyen Thi Anh
Unit 1303, Floor 13, Centec Tower
72-74 Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street
Ward 6, District 3
Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam
E-mail: thi.anh.nguyen@monsanto.com

Dear Mr Nguyen,

Sorry not to have received a reply to my letter to you of 10th December, so I assume you did not visit the children at the Hoa Binh Village at Tu Du Hospital. I find this worrying that you a Vietnamese, as are some of your staff, could not find time to see children affected by Agent Orange a product! made by the company you work for and represent in the country on which 80 million liters were sprayed. I need not tell you of the legacy it has left to the people and land of your country.

Dead Forests, Dying People
Agent Orange & Chemical Warfare in Vietnam

Fred A. Wilcox
Photographs by Brendan B. Wilcox

“In the abominable history of war, with the sole exception of nuclear weapons, never has such an inhuman fate ever before been reserved for the survivors”.

—Dr. Ton That Tung, Vietnamese research scientist