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Photo: A little girl with a birth defect attributed to Agent Orange languishes at Tu Du Obstetric and Gynecological Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon.
Agent Orange
and the Horror of
the U.S. War Crime
by Bill Fletcher Jr.
January 7, 2010
(NNPA)—You may not notice a victim of Agent Orange. They may look healthy on the outside, full of life and vigor. Yet inside them there is a time-bomb, a time-bomb set during the U.S. war against Vietnam more than 35 years ago. In over three million people, including U.S. troops who were involved in that war, this bomb has been going off over the years creating an ongoing catastrophe.
On a recent visit to Vietnam I had the opportunity to meet with leaders and activists in the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA). Formed in 2003 by physicians, Vietnamese war veterans and other activists, this mass organization spread throughout the country amounting to more than 60,000 members in chapters in most provinces. VAVA came together to remind both Vietnam, but also the world, of the continuing impact of the human-made plague that served as an instrument of war by the U.S. against Vietnam.
Agent Orange is a form of chemical warfare. It was promoted as a defoliant by the U.S. government, allegedly for the purposes of destroying jungles and forests where soldiers of the National Liberation Front and North Vietnam were encamped during the Indochina War. As one leader of VAVA informed me, Agent Orange was described by the U.S.A as being so safe that soldiers were informed that they could use it on their skin against various insects.
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