Statement from John Pilger
"The use of Agent Orange in Vietnam was, by any measure, one of the great crimes of the twentieth century. In village after village, I have seen the result: young people born with terrible deformities. Go into the main hospital in Saigon and see the malformed babies still being born. This poison will run through the water and agriculture of Vietnam for multiple lifetimes. I endorse this important campaign for justice. Nothing is more needed and more urgent."
Why is Agent Orange an issue?
Even though the US war on Vietnam ended nearly 40 years ago, the US’s saturation chemical bombing during that war is still wreaking havoc on the life of at least 3 million people in Vietnam – including the newly born, making them third generation victims. Nobody knows when the congenital deformities, one of many horrific health consequences of the toxic chemicals, will end.
The main chemical in question is nicknamed Agent Orange – a class-one human carcinogen dioxin and some 80 million litres of it and other similar “defoliants” – which the US military sprayed or dumped regularly in some 10% of central and southern Vietnam for 10 years until 1971.
Dioxin is chemically stable, isn’t diluted by water and so it doesn’t easily decompose. It, therefore, still exists in concentrated forms in Vietnam today, penetrating the eco-systems and food chains of parts of Vietnam, enabling it to continue to claim new victims, especially among the younger generations, for the mere fact that people – many of whom are dirt poor and seriously impoverished – live off the land and water systems contaminated by it. Women with dioxin in their blood can pass it on to their offspring, including through breast milk.