Written by: Carey Wedler at theantimedia.org
Decades after the Vietnam War, the Department of Veterans Affairs acknowledged last week that Monsanto’s Agent Orange—a dangerous herbicide sprayed over 4.5 million acres across Vietnam during the conflict—is responsible for health ailments in a group of as many as 2,100 veterans. It had previously denied such allegations.
And here is what they did to the Vietnamese population from then until now:
The United States government will pay out $45 million in disability benefits over ten years to compensate Air Force reservists and active-duty forces who were exposed to Agent Orange left over from the Vietnam War. The exposure came from residue on Fairchild C-123 aircraft, which were used to spray millions of gallons of the chemical, and, evidently, affected soldiers in the United States who later handled the planes from 1969-1986.According to ABC, the VA’s decision to compensate the 2,100 veterans follows a January Institute of Medicine study that found “some C-123 reservists stationed in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts had been exposed to Agent Orange residues in the planes and suffered higher risks of health problems as a result.”
Further, “the VA said it subsequently determined that pilots, mechanics and medical personnel who served at seven other locations in the U.S. and abroad also were potentially affected – Florida, Virginia, and Arizona, as well as Taiwan, Panama, South Korea and the Philippines.”
The VA has previously acknowledged (and made compensations for) the chemical’s health effects on soldiersdirectly exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam and Korea. However, considering the 2,100 veterans did not even visit Vietnam but were merely exposed to planes that sprayed the chemical, the department’s decision to pay the new set of veterans is a silent admission of just how toxic the chemical is. This is a marked shift, as the VA previously refused to compensate certain naval veterans who claimed they suffered Agent Orange-inflicted health conditions because of their time stationed off the coast of Vietnam.
There is no doubt about the toxicity of Agent Orange. Even the government details a wide range of diseases caused by exposure to the herbicide, including (but not limited to) Parkinson’s Disease, prostate cancer, respiratory cancers of the lung, larynx, trachea, and bronchus, Hodgkin’s Disease, Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, Leukemia, Type 2 Diabetes and Ischemic Heart Disease. The effects of exposure to Agent Orange are also passed on to the children of victims.
While veteran exposure to Agent Orange is tragic and the compensation is warranted, the U.S. government has failed to make reparations for exposing countless Vietnamese civilians to the herbicide in its attempt to clear forest and crops during the war. According to the Vietnamese Red Cross, nearly one million Vietnamese were affected by the 19 million gallons sprayed—including generations of children born with debilitating birth defects.
Unfortunately, while the payout is the least the government can do, it constitutes yet another subsidy for the Monsanto corporation. As if the military had not done the company enough favors by buying millions of gallons of its herbicide during the Vietnam War, it now pays millions to deal with the devastating effects of those military-industrial purchases.
Between Congress passing legislation in favor of the conglomeration, its stranglehold on the FDA, and the justice system codifying its power, it is unsurprising that Monsanto has also used the military to reap profits and avoid accountability—a defining characteristic of the loathed corporation.
Such subservience to corporate interests has undermined any commitment to justice or rationality. As retired Air Force Major Wesley T. Carter (whose C-123 Veterans Association spearheaded the fight to attain compensation) said,
“Every medical and scientific fact convincing the Institute of Medicine of our Agent Orange exposures had been presented years earlier to the VA but was simply ignored or dismissed. That was wrong.”
As ABC detailed, other veterans groups “expressed tempered relief, expressing hope it would signal a new government willingness to acknowledge a wider range of toxic health risks undertaken by military personnel, such as Gulf War neurotoxins and burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Related articles:
Vietnam – My orange pain [Intense Documentary]
So far my oncologist has blamed my left floor of the mouth cancer that I have purely on cigarettes that I began using out of C-Rations. A couple of weeks ago when I explained to the VSO (Veteran Service Officer) that the doctor blamed cigarettes and I wanted compensation he promptly handed me a piece of paper explaining why the tobacco companies were not liable. I asked my primary care doctor just yesterday that rather than tobacco that I think it was dioxin and she doesn’t blink in her response of no. They drafted me to be shot at and never told me about dioxin and who knew that smoke breaks would cause me to actually start a 40 year old smoking habit from my food? No one told me how it was when corporations goad my government into drafting me to fight corporation wars in such places as Vietnam. What is wrong with America? Haha nothing at all just ask Mitsy Romney how to get out of the draft he knows how.
How about the veterans who served on the Korean DMZ? 68 to 69 they admit, so far to using it and the presumptive dates are only 68 to 71!!!!
But yet, many of us who served in the 70s and 80s are now fighting A.O. diseases!!!!!
Korea – Agent Orange FB Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/Korea.Agent.Orange/
Over 722 members in 14 months and still growing, because we have a reall issue!!!!
Yes, they sprayed that crap on us twice a week. It would burn our eyes for a short time, land on our clothes, and have an odd smell to it. As a Vietnam Vet I was turned away from the VA hospital, because they claimed I made to much money. Thank Bush for that Vets! I am only on a small social security check. With all of this, no ill effects have shown up. I hope it stays that way. I found out anyway that the meds I take, I get cheaper at WalMart, than I could have at the VA. When the government is through with you, they will spit you out and give you nothing.
What about the atomic veterans from Korea. They have not been compensated for their time in Nevada and being on ground zero shortly after the blast. The government states that they did not receive radiation overdoses but amazingly, all the radiaion badges disappeared. Dad broke his knee in 3 places and it was so unusual that 3 doctors were arguing over who got to do the surgery. He ended up with type 2 diabetes when he was 65 and fractured his hip into 27 pieces when he was kneeling down and fell less than 20 inches. Well proven fact that atomic veterans have a higher rate of brittle bone disease and birth defects amongst their children. I am missing a bone in my leg and in 1961, no doctor in Ohio had ever seen anything else like it. But the VA and government feel that they can outlast the atomic veterans because they are dying off at a staggering rate. When will the military and government stop using our veterans as guinea pigs?
My dad was a Vietnam between, who fought in that war. He is having problems with health issues from the agent orange, he has had Cancer, one of my sisters got cancer, if the agent orange was passed down to my 3 sisters, and I then my dad, deserves to be compensated from his time in the Vietnam war, I love my dad, and respect my dad, so much, I don’t want to lose him to Agent Orange. I am also, having Medical problems from : Anemia, to Atrial Fibrillation, no energy on a daily basis. It was wrong, of our government, to use Agent Orange on our own American Soldiers, they we’re spit on when they came home from war, and called horrible names. I feel so bad for these veterans, I know of two other veterans, from Vietnam that are having Medical Issues, from the Agent Orange, one is my step dad, and a family friend of mine. All these veterans need the compensation, and respect.