This week marks the fiftieth anniversary of the end of the US War on Vietnam, and the United States government continues to bear responsibility for cleaning up the ravages of war imposed on the Vietnamese people.
On Wednesday, April 30, the exact day of the anniversary, there were massive celebrations in Vietnam — and subdued commemorations in the United States.
Although the bombs stopped dropping decades ago, the United States has left its poisons behind in the land and people of Vietnam — Agent Orange/dioxin and unexploded ordnance. Both will last for generations.
To address the harms and legacy of the United States spraying approximately 19 million gallons of Agent Orange and other deadly herbicides throughout Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, US representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and others introduced two pieces of legislation on April 28. (Veterans for Peace, where Susan Schnall is president, has endorsed this legislation.)
One, the Victims of Agent Orange Act, supports medical care and related assistance for Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, provides environmental remediation for areas in Vietnam exposed to Agent Orange, and directs a health assessment and provision of assistance for affected Vietnamese American communities.
The other, the Agent Orange Relief Act, provides benefits for children of male US veterans affected by birth defects, a group left behind under current law, which only covers birth defects for children of women veterans. The legislation would also support greater research into Agent Orange–related health issues.
From 1961 to 1971, the United States government undertook massive defoliation programs as an instrument of war in Southeast Asia. It systematically set out to destroy millions of acres of foliage from the air, over the years spraying an estimated 4.8 million Vietnamese, Lao, and Cambodian people and its own troops on the ground.
This Agent Orange was contaminated with…
Auteur: Susan Schnall
