The case against Agent Orange
and all Mutagenic Weapons:

By Willem Malten  <kanseki@nets.com>

The last time I thought about Agent Orange was more or less 33 years ago--until recently. I met with a group of Vietnamese citizens, led by Dr Nhan bearing witness to the plight of millions of Vietnamese people affected by Agent Orange. Professor Nhan is sadly disappointed by the US response to calls to help Vietnamese sufferers and the outcome of a lawsuit against the chemical companies who produced Agent Orange --some 9 of them.

"Vietnam can't solve the problem on its own. Hanoi helped the US military to track down remains of MIAs (US servicemen missing in action), and we asked them to reciprocate with humanitarian aid for victims of Agent Orange," he said.

Around 10,000 US war veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange receive disability benefits for various types of cancer and other serious health problems that have been linked to dioxin.

"American victims of Agent Orange will get up to $1500 a month. However most Vietnamese families affected receive around 80,000 Dong a month (just over $5 dollars) in government support for each disabled child," Professor Nhan said.

 

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According to Vietnam's Red Cross, 150,000 children have problems resulting from Agent Orange
 When former US President Bill Clinton visited Hanoi four years ago, Vietnamese president Tran Duc Long made an appeal to the US "to acknowledge its responsibility to de-mine, detoxify former military bases and provide assistance to Agent Orange victims".

But Washington offered nothing beyond funding scientific conferences and further research.


Agent Orange, named after the color of its containers and billed as a defoliant herbicide to remove the jungle cover in order to better spot the enemy, had  been sprayed over large swatches of land ( 3 million acres plus) during the Vietnam war. In fact the use of Agent Orange from 1961 to 1971 was the longest sustained chemical warfare in history, perpetrated on the Vietnamese people. More than 80 million litres of Agent Orange was dispensed of during that time containing about 400 Kilograms (800 pounds) of dioxins -- perhaps the most toxic substance known to mankind. Over 3000 villages were sprayed directly and between 2 and 5 million people are estimated to have been directly exposed to the chemicals. 

After the end of the Vietnam war in 1972, the Agent Orange story seemed to end also. Concentrations of Agent Orange seemed to quickly dwindle in the monsoon rains of Vietnam and that was that.

Then in 1984 the story of Agent Orange re-surfaced when several chemical companies settled a lawsuit in the amount of $180 million  with US Vietnam Veterans who complained that their health and that of their families had been affected by their handling of Agent Orange in Vietnam. It seemed that some genetic defects were related to Agent Orange exposure.

On January 31, 2004, a victim's rights group, the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA), filed a class action lawsuit in a US Federal District Court in Brooklyn, New York, against several US companies, for liability in causing personal injury, by developing and producing the chemical. Dow Chemical and Monsanto were the two largest producers of Agent Orange for the US military, and were named in the suit along with eight other companies. These are the same companies that spray their toxic chemicals over large swatches of land in the US and everywhere else. They are the ones that peddle their genetically deformed crops as a business in the form  genetically modified crops that threateen the genetic inheritance of us all.
     On March 10, 2005, the District Court judge dismissed the suit, ruling that there was no legal basis for the plaintiffs' claims. The judge Jack B Weinstein concluded that Agent Orange was not considered a poison under international law at the time of its use by the US; that the US was not prohibited from using it as an herbicide; and that the companies which produced the substance were not liable for the method of its use by the government. The US government, which has sovereign immunity, had not been a target of the lawsuit. Even so, The National Toxicology Program has classified 2,3,7,8-TCDD, the dioxin in Agent Orange, to be a known human carcinogen, frequently associated with soft-tissue sarcoma, Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Hodgkin disease and chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Though concentrations in the open have dropped, Agent Orange has an affinity to fatty acids (much like DDT) and has worked its way up the food chain. Perhaps the most disturbing effect of this has been a proliferation of birth defects and genetic abnormality affecting many children in Vietnam. Agent  During the presentation by the Vietnamese representatives visiting the US, a 15 minute video was shown exposing the suffering of an estimated 3 to 4 million Vietnamese, many born decades after warfare had ceased. Perhaps the most disturbing was footage of many preserved fetuses, one after another exposing the most grotesque deformities. Agent orange was used over a ten year span and some of these effects of Agent Orange were surely known to the militairy, the corporations and the Government. yet use continued supposedly without genocidal intent. After what we know now, to classify Agent Orange as an  herbicide and solely because of that classification deny any justice to the Vietnamese and Cambodian victims of its use, is frankly disgusting and intolerable to any moral human. Surely responsibility should be doled out to the criminal corporations and government involved --otherwise these kind of crimes will repeat themselves again and again.  

 Agent Orange in that sense is an illustration of the horror of any kind of warfare  but chemical, biological and nuclear warfare in particular. Because of the genetic 'component' of their use, these are the weapons that keep on inflicting through the generations. Thus these weapons should be re-classified under one banner as so-called 'Mutagenic Weapons', and be subject to similar laws. How can it be that  the unborn and thus innocent are targeted? Any person of conscience and good will immediately  see that is illegal and a crime against humanity.
Now is the time to act. We need to reach out to our Vietnamese brothers and sisters and support their efforts to hold the companies responsible for making these chemicals, and  hold the US government responsible for giving the go ahead for illegal chemical warfare. If we don't, white phosphorus and depleted uranium will continue to rain on civilian populations everywhere whether it is in Kosovo, in Afganistan or Iraq, and for many decades to come we will be mourning and wondering what to do about the genetically degenerate hordes and generations to come.