The War on Vietnam Ended 50 Years Ago and the U.S. Desperately Needs More Action on Agent Orange
Congress Should mark the 50th anniversary by passing new legislation addressing the impact of Agent Orange.
Susan Schnall and Azadeh Shahshahani
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the U.S. 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, U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) 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 U.S. 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 dioxin-a byproduct of rushed production during the war when chemical companies were making huge profits.
For years, there have been complaints from returning soldiers about their health and that of their children. Today, the United States Department of Veteran Affairs recognizes health problems related to exposure to Agent Orange including neurological, respiratory, cardiac and endocrine. Dioxin not only impacts the lives of the American soldiers who were in Vietnam, causing deteriorating illnesses, but it can also be transmitted to their children.
Spina Bifida is the only birth defect recognized in the children of U.S. male veterans who served in Vietnam. Multiple birth defects including limb deformities, neurological problems and others are recognized by the VA in the children of U.S. female veterans. The VA needs to recognize that multiple birth defects from the father’s exposure in Vietnam are also the result of exposure to Agent Orange.
While many other Vietnamese people continue to be exposed to Agent Orange through contact with the environment and food that was contaminated — and many descendants of those who were exposed have birth defects, developmental disabilities and deadly diseases — very few adults and children have received any services or help from the United States.
The U.S. military also left unexploded ordnances — bombs that did not explode when they hit the ground all those years ago and that have deteriorated over time and can easily explode when touched.
A farmer plowing his fields in Vietnam can inadvertently jostle an unexploded ordnance that explodes and tears his body apart. A child playing in the fields could pick up an unexploded bomb that will go off in his hand and kill him.
The United States cleanup effort of Danang Airport-formerly a U.S. airbase during its War on Vietnam, was completed in 2018. The cleanup of Bien Hoa Airport was in process for several years until the current administration removed all workers from this site as part of its larger campaign to cut essential remedial work done outside the United States. This leaves mounds of earth contaminated with exposed dioxin that could be washed into the atmosphere over the Vietnamese people.
And potential cuts to the Department of Veterans Affairs will only compound difficulties for veterans affected by Agent Orange.
“The lives of many victims are cut short, and others live with disease, disabilities and pain, which are often untreated or unrecognized,” Tlaib said. “As we mark 50 years after the United States’ withdrawal from Vietnam, it is time to meet our moral and legal obligations to heal the wounds inflicted by these atrocities.”
Congress must act promptly to ensure that the untold number of Vietnamese people and U.S. veterans and their children forever harmed by this disastrous war receive a measure of redress.
Susan Schnall is president of Veterans For Peace, a non-profit organization composed of veterans whose collective efforts are to build a culture of peace by informing the public of the true causes and costs of war.
Azadeh Shahshahani is legal and advocacy director at Project South and a past president of the National Lawyers Guild. She tweets @ashshahahani and you can read her work at In These Times here.
