The War Legacies Project
focuses on
the long-term impacts of war to develop a fuller understanding of
the costs of war, increase public understanding of these costs,
foster public dialogue about the impacts of war and conduct programs
that help mitigate the impacts of war at home and abroad. Currently
our work is primarily focused on the long-term health and
environmental impacts of the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam
War. We also work to address the on-going impacts of unexploded
ordinance.
A Hard Way to Die Why hundreds of thousands of Vietnam
vets with Agent Orange–related diseases have been made
to suffer without VA health care.
by Phillip Longman
Featured Speakers
Phillip Longman
Senior Research Fellow, New America Foundation
Author, "Best Care Anywhere"
Michael
F. Martin, Ph.D.
Analyst in Asian Trade & Finance
Foreign Affairs, Defense & Trade Division,
Congressional Research Service
Library of Congress
Clay Risen
Managing Editor Democracy
Moderator Paul Glastris
Editor in Chief
Washington Monthly
******
Veterans' benefits entangled
in red tape. by Amanda Carpenter.
Washington Times. December 31, 2009.
Leading Democrats
like to hold up the Veterans Benefits Administration
as an example of how well government can provide
health care. But veterans who deal with the complex
federal bureaucracy have invented an unhappy refrain
to describe the VBA: "Deny, deny until you
die."
More...
"DELAY, DENY AND HOPE THAT
I DIE" -
Two wars and a recession have significantly
increased the claims handled by the U.S.
Department of Veteran's Affairs, slowing the
large bureaucracy and frustrating many veterans.
Byron Pitts reports. David Schneider is the
producer.: To Air on 60 Minutes. January 3, 2010
This lonely section of the abandoned Danang air base
was once crawling with U.S. airmen and machines. It was
here where giant orange drums were stored and the
herbicides they contained were mixed and loaded onto
waiting planes. Whatever sloshed out soaked into the
soil and eventually seeped into the water supply. Thirty
years later, the rare visitor to the former U.S. air
base is provided with rubber boots and protective
clothing. Residue from Agent Orange, which was sprayed
to deny enemy troops jungle cover, remains so toxic that
this patch of land is considered one of the most
contaminated pieces of real estate in the country.
More...
Five part
series
of a Tribune investigation finds that U.S. officials have
neglected a lasting problem even as the health fallout has
spread. (Tribune
photo by Kuni Takahashi /
June 25,
2009)
Agent Orange's lethal legacy:
Poisonous defoliants still exact a toll in U.S., Vietnam
Chicago Tribune - By Jason Grotto and Tim Jones.
December 4, 2009. In central Indiana,
two sisters struggle through another day, afflicted by a
painful condition in which their brains are wedged against
their spinal cords. They are in their 30s, but their bodies
are slowly shutting down.
More...
Part 3: Agent Orange: Birth defects plague Vietnam; U.S.
slow to help: U.S., Vietnam split over whether
defoliants used in war are to blameBy Jason Grotto - Tribune Reporter December 8, 2009.
The sun beats down on Dao Thi Kieu's straw hat as
she hunches over thin strands of bright green rice
plants, pulling them from beds submerged in muddy
water and replanting them elsewhere.
These are the same paddies Kieu tended as a teenager
during the Vietnam War, and she still remembers the
planes that came in the mornings to spray Agent
Orange and other defoliants while she worked.
More...
Part 4: Agent Orange's lethal
legacy: At former U.S. bases in Vietnam, a potent
poison is clear and present danger: Bases
remain polluted from defoliants, underscoring the
urgency of a solvable problemBy
Jason Grotto Tribune Reporter. December 9, 2009. When a small Canadian
environmental firm started collecting soil samples
on a former U.S. air base in a remote Vietnam
valley, Thomas Boivin and other scientists were
skeptical they'd find evidence proving herbicides
used there by the U.S. military decades ago still
posed a health threat.
But results showed levels of the cancer-causing
poison dioxin were far greater than guidelines set
by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for
residential areas.
More...
That year, a Dow Chemical Company memo called a
contaminant in Agent Orange "one of the most toxic
materials known causing not only skin lesions, but
also liver damage."More...
His Excellency Ngo Quang Xuan
Vice Chairman
Foreign Relations Committee
National Assembly of Vietnam
(Co-Chair, US-Vietnam Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin and
also former Vietnamese Ambassador to the United Nations)
WITNESSES:
Panel I
The Honorable Scot Marciel
Deputy Assistant Secretary and Ambassador for ASEAN
Affairs
Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs
U.S. Department of State
Panel II
Mr. Charles Bailey
Director
Special Initiative on Agent Orange/Dioxin
Ford Foundation
Mr. Vo Quy
Professor
Centre for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies (CRES)
Vietnam National University, Hanoi, Vietnam
(Member, US-Vietnam Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin)
Ms. Mary Dolan-Hogrefe
Vice President and Senior Adviser
National Organization on Disability
(Member, US-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent
Orange/Dioxin and also Director of the World Committee
on Disability)
Mr. Rick Weidman
Executive Director for Policy & Government Affairs
Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA)
Last Ghost of War on PBS
For viewing dates and times
check you local PBS station at
http://www.pbs.org. Most of the stations are showing the
film on their digital station PBS - World.
Last Ghost of War
looks at the on-going consequences of the use of chemical
defoliants and herbicides during the war in Vietnam through
the lens of the current lawsuit against Dow, Monsanto, and
35 other chemical companies that manufactured the products.
Who was responsible? What should be done today?
WLP is working with documentary
filmmakers Janet Gardner and Pham Thai to coordinate
screenings of this new film. To arrange a screening in your
community contact
shammond@warlegacies.org.
Featured Speakers
Phillip Longman
Senior Research Fellow, New America Foundation
Author, "Best Care Anywhere"
Michael
F. Martin, Ph.D.
Analyst in Asian Trade & Finance
Foreign Affairs, Defense & Trade Division,
Congressional Research Service
Library of Congress
Clay Risen
Managing Editor Democracy
Moderator Paul Glastris
Editor in Chief
Washington Monthly
Secretary Shinseki Announces Study of
Vietnam-Era Women Veterans - VA Press
Release November 19, 2009. Secretary of Veterans Affairs
Eric K. Shinseki announced the Department of Veterans
Affairs (VA) is launching a comprehensive study of women
Veterans who served in the military during the Vietnam War
to explore the effects of their military service upon their
mental and physical health.
More...
*****
Toxin in Agent Orange still polluting
South Vietnam, study says
Chicago Tribune - September 13, 2009. By Jason Grotto.
HANOI, Vietnam - -- Results from a new study show that
herbicides used by U.S. forces during the
Vietnam War continue to pollute the environment and pose
a health threat more than three decades after the last shots
were fired.
More...
*****
Secretary Shinseki Announces New
Efforts to Explore Health Consequences –
VA Press Release - September 14, 2009. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K.
Shinseki announced today plans to begin additional research
by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to better
understand the health consequences of service in Vietnam.
“The National Vietnam Veterans
Longitudinal Study (NVVLS) will allow VA to pursue another
valuable research tool,” Secretary Shinseki said. “The
insight we gain from this study will help give us an
understanding of how to better serve America’s Veterans.”
More...
*****
The National Academy of Sciences
announces that limited data suggests possible
association between Agent Orange exposure and Ischemic Heart
disease and Parkinson's disease in Vietnam Veterans. July
24, 2009
NAS
Press release
Vietnam's Lingering Ghost: Facing the
Legacy of Agent Orange
-
HDNET -
World Reportreveals
the ghost that the United States left behind when our troops
left Vietnam Agent Orange. Greg Dobbs traveled to Vietnam
for a report that reveals hundreds of people - especially
children born years after the war - suffer from grotesque,
debilitating deformities, mental retardation and cancer.
Many Vietnamese believe these conditions are a direct result
of Agent Orange. Should the U.S. be doing more to help the
children who are still suffering over 30 years after the
war? Available for viewing on
iTunes for $1.99.
*****
The FY2009 Omnibus spending bill passed
by congress and signed by President Obama in early March
contained an additional appropriation of $3 million “to
continue environmental remediation of dioxin contamination
at Da Nang Airport and related Health activities in nearby
communities in Vietnam.”
*****
On March 2, 2009 the US Supreme Court
denied the writ of certiorari filed by the lawyers for the
Vietnamese plaintiffs to hear the case against the chemical
companies that produced Agent Orange. At the same time the
court also refused the writ of certiorari for the suit filed
on behalf of US veterans against the chemical companies.
This brings an end to the legal battle against the chemical
companies.
New Books on Agent
Orange:
Veterans and Agent Orangeprovides a
comprehensive evaluation of scientific and medical
information regarding the health effects of exposure to
Agent Orange and other herbicides used in Vietnam.
The History,
Use, Disposition and Environmental Fate of Agent Orange
By Alvin Young (April 2009) This book
was commissioned by The Office of the Deputy Under Secretary
of Defense (Installations and Environment) with the intent
of providing documentation of the knowledge on the history,
use, disposition and environmental fate of Agent Orange and
its associated dioxin.
"INVISIBLE
CHILDREN: The Third Generation of Agent Orange Children in
Vietnam" by Marilyn M. Tycer.
"Invisible Children" explores the lives of 45
children at the Peace Village II in HCM City, Viet Nam who
are affected by the Vietnam War-era herbicide Agent Orange.
Available at
Amazon.com or at
Createspace.
About the artwork in
the top panel: The first three works are by the Vietnamese
artist Vu Giang Huong. Giang Huong's late husband,
Dr Le Cao Dai is profiled in the third painting. Dr Dai was
one of the leading Vietnamese scientists researching the
impacts of Agent Orange. The last painting of the girl
erasing Dioxin is by the artist Nguyen Du. This work
was commissioned by WLP for a special exhibit on Agent
Orange by Vietnamese artists . This and other the 29 other
works are available for exhibit in the US.
War Legacies Project
144 Lower Bartonsville Rd, Chester, VT 05143
Veteran's 2
daughters endure toxic inheritance
By Chris Walker Produced by Peggy
Draver.
Vietnam
says millions still feel war's impact
The
hazards of dioxin in the environment
The Legacy of Agent Orange
