According to the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign, Wednesday August 10, 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the United States Military’s first spraying of toxic chemicals in Vietnam. Rainbow herbicides, most notably Agent Orange, were used in combat by Marines, Navy, Army, and Air Force personnel against oppositional forces for a 10-year period, during the Vietnam War.
In the last half-century, continuous scientific investigation has outlined the mass detrimental outcomes of chemical exposure extending from the Vietnam War.
To complement this information we may turn to Vietnam, wherein millions of people have experienced war-era toxin exposure and over 400,000 have died due to effects of the rainbow herbicides.
In the veteran (and children of veteran) communities, the phrase “deny, deny, deny until they die” has become a way of understanding the US Government’s response to innumerable claims that Vietnam-era toxin exposure has essentially ruined lives. Birth defects, learning disabilities, psychiatric symptoms, and developmental abnormalities are just some of the trans-generational detriments that are exhibited in thousands of veterans’ children as well as those in Vietnam.Case in point, for millions of us, the war in Vietnam is not completely over.
The Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2011 is in the first phase of the legislative process.
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