hardboiled

there's a poison going on

by brian lau

“Not since the Romans salted the land after destroying Carthage has a nation taken such pains to visit the war on future generations.” - Ngo Van Long, speaking on the US war against Vietnam.

In 1975, thousands of people across the globe watched as US military helicopters airlifted American and Vietnamese personnel out of Saigon. For many, the event symbolized the loss of the war, a retreat for US forces, and the end of American involvement in the region. For those who remained in Vietnam, however, the war would continue on, the remnants of which have affected generations born after the fighting’s end.

Among the more lasting effects of the war have been the havoc wreaked by the US’s environmental warfare strategies. In Vietnam, the US military faced an unfamiliar terrain covered with fields and forests that provided sanctuary and food for the enemy troops. In the face of the guerilla warriors’ home field advantage, American troops did what they could to gain an edge: they burned down the field. And the forests and just about everything that lived in them, with little regard for the natural habitat of Vietnam or its people. Thousands of Vietnamese who resided in the countryside and depended on the land for sustenance were forced away from their ancestral homes into the major cities.

One of the main techniques the US military employed was the use of conventional explosives dropped from B- 52s and other bombers. These bombs, some weighing as much as 15,000 pounds, were dropped indiscriminately, onto all types of habitats, and created over twenty million craters in South Vietnam. The craters crippled local farming by uprooting and exposing the subsoil, ruining the ability of the farmers to raise crops. They also made for great breeding spots for mosquitoes; the craters, ranging from five to fifteen feet deep, would fill with water, and, coupled with the hot and humid weather of the region, allowed for the spread of the malaria-carrying insects.

The US also destroyed thousands of acres of land in its attempts to create landing zones for their helicopters. One of the bombs the military used was the aforementioned 15,000-pound "daisy cutter." Capable of clearing an area the size of a football field, the daisy cutter blew away all vegetation and completely removed all trees in the vicinity. Before the war, Vietnam had been self-sufficient for lumber. However, the massive uprooting and shrapnel that was lodged in the trees made most of the wood incapable of being processed, as the trees became susceptible to infection. Through all this, the land was stripped of its vegetation and overrun with weeds; while the Vietnamese government has made efforts to replant the forests, much of the land today is waste.

But by far the most infamous of the strategies the US military undertook during the Vietnam war was the use of chemical herbicides, of which Agent Orange is the most notorious. Starting in 1961, over a hundred thousand tons of these herbicides were sprayed over Vietnam’s forests, through helicopters, boats, and troops with the poisons dispelled from their backpacks. The herbicides destroyed the land, the dead trees totaling an area the size of Connecticut. The poison also hit hard the animal and plant life that the Vietnamese peasants and troops depended on. Despite being denied covering and food, however, the guerilla forces still were able to carry on the war, though at great cost to the local people.

Of the herbicides used, Agent Orange was by far the deadliest. Agent Orange contains dioxin, an organic compound that is recognized as one of the most toxic pollutants in the world. The effects of the poison range from nausea and vomiting to mental retardation and death. According to some American researchers, up to 4.8 million Vietnamese may have been exposed to the toxins, and in 2000, at least one million were physically disabled because of the exposure.

The poison’s effects have not been limited to those alive during the Vietnam War, but have been passed on to new generations of children who are born with birth defects caused by Agent Orange. Many parents may have unknowingly been exposed to herbicides, either directly or indirectly, for example, through consuming poisoned fish. The children are born mentally retarded and suffer from a variety of physical deformities. Due to the extreme poverty many of the families live in, raising a child with such handicaps is an option few are able to afford. Families cannot live on the wages of one member, but taking care of a disabled child requires the full time and attention of one of the parents. The Vietnamese government gives a $16-a-month stipend for families, but many children are abandoned or sent to group homes.

To date, the US government has not assumed responsibility for these environmental atrocities. Congress has already passed legislation providing assistance for American veterans suffering from dioxin, though stated that the links between the herbicides and the illnesses were "presumptive." In 1984, American veterans also won a $180 million settlement against the manufacturers of Agent Orange. However, a similar suit filed by the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin in 2004 was dismissed on the grounds that Agent Orange was not considered a poison under international law at the time of its use, thus shielding the US government and the manufacturers it contracted out from liability. The case is currently being appealed.

Recently, efforts have been made to clean up the aftermath of Agent Orange and other herbicides. The US government has committed $300,000 to removing the toxic chemicals from the soil of the different hot spots, with the United Nations set to contribute in the near future. The Ford Foundation has also recently that it will be giving $2.2 million towards restoring the environment and providing healthcare for the victims. However, a joint study between the US and Vietnamese government on the health and environmental effects of Agent Orange was halted when the US pulled out, citing communication failures. The study could have affirmed the toxin’s link to the victims’ health problems, a link that the chemical manufacturers of Agent Orange still deny.

In the end however, millions of Vietnamese have suffered injuries and indignities that money will be unable to heal. So long as the government that afflicted these hardships on these people remains immune from liability, from acknowledging the atrocities it has enacted, it is not difficult to see how and why these events may occur again, why these lessons may go unlearned. And for the victims, there is undoubtedly little comfort in that.