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January 2010 Edition
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Agent Orange Continues
to Poison Vietnam
By: Marjorie Cohn
From
1961 to 1971, the U.S. military sprayed Vietnam with Agent Orange, which
contained large quantities of Dioxin, in order to defoliate the trees for
military objectives.
Dioxin is one of the most dangerous chemicals known to man. It has been
recognized by the World Health Organization as a carcinogen (causes cancer)
and by the American Academy of Medicine as a teratogen (causes birth
defects).
Between 2.5 and 4.8 million people were exposed to Agent Orange. 1.4 billion
hectares of land and forest - approximately 12 percent of the land area of
Vietnam - were sprayed.
The Vietnamese who were exposed to the chemical have suffered from cancer,
liver damage, pulmonary and heart diseases, defects to reproductive
capacity, and skin and nervous disorders. Children and grandchildren of
those exposed have severe physical deformities, mental and physical
disabilities, diseases, and shortened life spans.
The forests and jungles in large parts of southern Vietnam have been
devastated and denuded.
They may never grow back and if they do, it will take 50 to 200 years to
regenerate.
Animals that inhabited the forests and jungles have become extinct,
disrupting the communities that depended on them. The rivers and underground
water in some areas have also been contaminated.
Erosion and desertification will change the environment, contributing to the
warming of the planet and dislocation of crop and animal life.
The U.S. government and the chemical companies knew that Agent Orange, when
produced rapidly at high temperatures, would contain large quantities of
Dioxin. Nevertheless, the chemical companies continued to produce it in this
manner.
The U.S. government and the chemical companies also knew that the Bionetics
Study, commissioned by the government in 1963, showed that even low levels
of Dioxin produced significant deformities in unborn offspring of laboratory
animals. But they suppressed that study and continued to spray Vietnam with
Agent Orange. It wasn’t until the study was leaked in 1969 that the spraying
of Agent Orange was discontinued.
U.S. soldiers who served in Vietnam have experienced similar illnesses.
After they sued the chemical companies, including Dow and Monsanto, that
manufactured and sold Agent Orange to the government, the case settled out
of court for $180 million which gave few plaintiffs more than a few thousand
dollars each. Later the U.S. veterans won a legislative victory for
compensation for exposure to Agent Orange. They receive $1.52 billion per
year in benefits.
But when the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange sued the chemical companies
in federal court, U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein dismissed the lawsuit,
concluding that Agent Orange did not constitute a poison weapon prohibited
by the Hague Convention of 1907.
Weinstein had reportedly told the chemical companies when they settled the
U.S. veterans’ suit that their liability was over and he was making good on
his promise. His dismissal was affirmed by the Second Circuit Court of
Appeals and the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
The chemical companies admitted in their filing in the Supreme Court that
the harm alleged by the victims was foreseeable although not intended. How
can something that is foreseeable be unintended?
On May 15 and 16 of this year, the International Peoples’ Tribunal of
Conscience in Support of the Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange convened in
Paris and heard testimony from 27 victims, witnesses and scientific experts.
Seven people from three continents served as judges of the Tribunal, which
was sponsored by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL).
Testimony given by the witnesses showed the following:
Mai Giang Vu, a member of the Army of South Vietnam, carried barrels of the
chemicals on his back. His two sons could not walk or function normally,
their limbs gradually “curled up” and they could only crawl. They died at
the ages of 23 and 25.
Pham The Minh, whose parents also served in the South Vietnamese Army,
showed the Tribunal his severely deformed, crooked, skinny legs; he has
great difficulty walking, as well as digestive and pulmonary diseases.
To Nga Tran is a French Vietnamese who worked as a journalist during the
spraying. Her daughter weighed 6.6 pounds at the age of three months. Her
skin began shredding and she could not bear to have skin contact or simple
demonstrations of love. She died at 17 months, weighing 6.6 pounds. Ms. To
described a woman who gave birth to a “ball” with no human form. Many
children are born without brains; others make inhuman sounds.
Rosemarie Hohn Mizo is the widow of George Mizo, who served in the U.S. Army
in Vietnam in 1967.
He slept on contaminated ground and consumed food and drink that were also
contaminated.
George refused to serve after he was wounded for the third time; he was
court-martialed and sentenced to 2-1/2 years in prison and a dishonorable
discharge. George helped found the Friendship Village where Vietnamese
victims live in a supportive environment. He died from conditions related to
his exposure to Agent Orange.
Georges Doussin, co-founder of the Friendship Village, visited a dormitory
where he saw 50 highly deformed “monsters,” who produced inhuman sounds. One
man whose parent had been exposed to Agent Orange had four toes on each
foot. Doussin said Agent Orange creates “total anarchy in evolution.”
Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, from Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City
(Saigon), sees many children born without arms and/or legs, without heads or
faces, and without a brain chamber. According to the World Health
Organization, only 1 – 4 parts per trillion (PPT) of Dioxin in breast milk
can cause severe deformities in fetuses and even death. But up to 1450 PPT
are found in maternal milk in Vietnam.
Dr. Jeanne Stellman, who wrote the seminal article about Agent Orange in the
magazine Nature, testified that “this is the largest unstudied environmental
disaster in the world (except for natural disasters).”
Dr. Jean Grassman, from Brooklyn College at City University of New York,
testified that Dioxin is a potent cellular disregulator which alters a
variety of pathways to disrupt many systems. Children, she said, are very
sensitive to Dioxin; the intrauterine or post natal exposure to Dioxin may
result in altered immune, neurobehavioral, and hormonal functioning. Women
pass their exposure to their children both in utero and through the
excretion of Dioxin in breast milk.
Many ecosystems have been destroyed and Dioxin continues to poison Vietnam,
especially in the several “hot spots.”
Chemist Dr. Pierre Vermeulin testified that it was estimated that $1 billion
would be required to restore one hectare of land in Vietnam. The cost of
caring for the victims, many of whom need 24-hour care, is enormous.
In 1973, President Richard Nixon promised $3.25 billion in reconstruction
aid to Vietnam “without any preconditions.” That aid was never granted.
There are only 11 Friendship Villages in Vietnam; 1000 are needed to care
for the child victims of Agent Orange.
Last week, the Bureau of the IADL, meeting in Hanoi, presented President
Nguyen Minh Triet of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam with the final
decision of the Tribunal. The judges found the U.S. government and the
chemical companies guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and
ecocide during the illegal U.S. war of aggression in Vietnam. We recommended
that the Agent Orange Commission be established in Vietnam to assess the
damages suffered by the people and destruction of the environment, and that
the U.S. government and the chemical companies provide compensation for the
damage and destruction.
I told the President that it always struck me that even as U.S. bombs were
dropping on the people of Vietnam, they always distinguished between the
American government and the American people.
The President responded, “We fought the forces of aggression but we always
reserved our love for the people of America . . . because we knew they
always supported us.”
An estimated 3 million Vietnamese people were killed in the war, which also
claimed 58,000 American lives. For many other Vietnamese and U.S. veterans
and their families, the war continues to take its toll.
Several treaties the United States has ratified require an effective remedy
for violations of human rights. It is time to make good on Nixon’s promise
and remedy the terrible wrong the U.S. government perpetrated on the people
of Vietnam.
Congress must pass legislation to compensate the Vietnamese victims of Agent
Orange as it did for the U.S. Vietnam veteran victims.
Our government must know that it cannot continue to use weapons that target
and harm civilians. Indeed, the U.S. military is using depleted uranium in
Iraq and Afghanistan, which will poison those countries for incalculable
decades.
About the Author:
Marjorie Cohn, a professor at
Thomas Jefferson School of Law and president of the National Lawyers Guild,
served as a judge on the International Peoples’ Tribunal of Conscience in
Support of the Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange. She is a member of the
Bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers. Her latest
book is Rules of Disengagement.
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