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Reader Responses to Toxic Injustice
I spent seven years in Vietnam throughout most of the war. As a refugee Advisor for US AID, I witnessed planes saturate the countryside in the Mekong Delta with Agent Orange. I swam in the canals and rivers that were laced with agent orange and waded chest high in mud laced with Agent Orange in the Rung Sat. Because I was not a member of the military in Vietnam, I cannot claim any compensation. I am a Marine Corps veteran of World War II. I went back to Vietnam in 1991. A Chinese friend from Cho Lon took me to a ramshackled clinic to see his son, a victim of Agent Orange even though he was born after the war ended. I saw hundreds of the most horribly deformed children. I am haunted constantly by their images.
I have come to realize that the American people are the real enemies. They are guilty of the sin of omission. They do not care. They do not want to know about it. They will pay and pay soon for their crass indifference.
Sheridan Peterson
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Thank you for your article about the legacy of Agent Orange, which I saw posted on the "History News Network" list-serve.
If you would like to learn how some veterans and peace advocates from around the world have tried to heal the wounds left by Agent Orange and thereby create a living example of how we can transcend war and live in peace, please see the documentary "Friendship Village" (www.cypress-park.ca) and the project it profiles (www.vietnamfriendship.com). The project's website contains several newsletters which recount how the medical center has evolved.
Hope you appreciate our work.
Jeff ****
(US Army veteran (post-Vietnam war), conscientious objector, peace activist, and
historian)
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Thanks, Aaron, for helping to keep this ugly issue alive. Maybe Depleted Uranium will be the Iraq War's answer to Agent Orange. By focusing upon what was done to Vietnam, we can bring to the world's attention the horror of DU.
Thanks again,
Dennis ****
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I applaud you for this article and sent it to several people I know who are fighting the VA system for AO conditions.
I am the widow of a Navy Veteran who served during the Vietnam War. I guess I cannot name him as a Vietnam Veteran, as he did not leave state, he was stationed in RI and was one of the ones who removed dead soldiers
bodies from the planes as they came in.
In 1998 he became sick, we went to the VA hospital in Cleveland Ohio and for 2 yrs we were shuffeled around like a piece of dirt. His symptoms were severe abdominal pains, and severe diarreah after eating so much as
a bite of food. Tests were done, lost, never diagnosed and appointments not kept by doctors. We became known as a ''problem and suspicious of the system''. My husband had weighed 221 lbs when first sick, he was
almost 6 ft tall, and when he died in October of 2000, he weighed maybe 80 lbs, and VA never did diagnose him. We read where people in the VA there said they thought his symptoms were all psychosomatic, and did not
believe he was really sick, claiming he was making this up in his head. I worked in the medical field for over 13 years, and never seen anyone go through the pain and suffering this man did.
My point being to this is, people need to be aware of how some of these VA hospitals treat their Veterans, not only with the AO, but with all treatments. Now I am not saying there are not good people in the system, as there are. But for the most part, these doctors are just in the system because of its scheduling, and benefits. It is a teaching facility, which should make it better, but doesn't.
So when I see anyone write, and get word out to something so important as the care of our Veterans, I applaud them.
Again, thank you for this article.
Sincerely, Denise ****
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I really enjoyed your article entitled Toxic Injustice Part 1.
I am a member of the Agent Orange Association of Canada (AOAC) and we are at this time trying to achieve compensation as well as pensions for the Canadian Victims of the Canadian Forces Base Defoliant spraying. Too many people and Historians who write about the US Militaries use of Agent Orange do not have all the facts. Canada not only produced (manufactured) the chemicals in question also known as the Rainbow Chemicals but Canadian soldiers and civilians were actually some of its first victims. Canada started to spray what the US later called Agent Orange at CFB Gagetown and while soldiers were training there in 1956 before Canada began to sell AO to the US Military for use in Vietnam. This continued until 1964 when Canada changed to what the US Military would later call Agent White and sprayed up until 1984. In 1966 and 1967 the US Military was also invited in to test their products. The paper work for these statements can be found at
<http://www.agentorangealert.com/> www.agentorangealert.com .
Enough with the history lesson, when I read your article I noticed a few remarks that jumped out at me right away. The one that stood out the most was, "As early as 1952, Army officials had been informed by the Monsanto Chemical Company that 2,4,5-T was contaminated by a toxic substance." And I was wondering if you have documented proof of this as we could sure use a copy of it in our own struggle for justice. [Aaron's Note: This assertions comes from Peter Schuck's book, Agent Orange on Trial. His reference for it is: "See AO, Fairness Opinion at 797-99; AO, 565 F. Supp. 1263, 1266-74 (E.D.N.Y. 1983); Whiteside, Pendulum, chap. 1]
Thanking you in advance and keep up the good work
Cpl. Kenneth H. Young CD (Ret'd)
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