A Vietnamese soldier guards an area contaminated with dioxin to keep civilians away near the Bien Hoa air base outside Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. | Kham / Pool Photo via AP
HANOI – On August 8, the people of Vietnam commemorated the 63rd anniversary of the first use of the chemical weapon known as Agent Orange by the United States and its allies on Vietnam. Each year on this anniversary, the Vietnamese Association of Agent Orange/Dioxin Victims (VAVA) marks the occasion with events to raise much-needed funds to care for victims of American war crimes.
To this day, Agent Orange and the other dioxin weapons used by the United States during the Indochina War continue to affect the Vietnamese population and many U.S. veterans who were forced to handle the dangerous chemicals. Because these chemicals alter the DNA of those affected and can remain in the environment for decades, new victims are born every year.
While the U.S. government continues to partially fund environmental cleanup in Vietnam, the U.S. military and the chemical companies that produced the weapons continue to shirk their ethical responsibility to care for the human casualties.
Last March, the Communist Party USA’s Hello Comrade program visited Vietnam. While there, the CPUSA group met with the leaders of VAVA and visited one of the organization’s care villages on the outskirts of Hanoi, where they met with caregivers and victims.
They learned that while the Vietnamese government and VAVA are doing everything in their power to help these people, the country still lacks the resources needed to provide adequate care.
Hello Comrade delegates were shocked by what they saw. Many were unaware of the long-term effects of Agent Orange and that new generations of victims are still being born.
Arturo Cambron, head of the delegation, said: “Since it was our government – the US government – that committed these crimes, it is our responsibility to step in and do everything we can to help.”
On August 11, Hello Comrade delegates announced that the Communist Party USA is mobilizing its members across the country as part of a broad coalition to fight for justice for Agent Orange/dioxin victims in both Vietnam and the United States. The goal is to raise awareness of the ongoing suffering of victims and the need to help them.
The CPUSA will work with the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign (VAORRC), founded by the late Merle Ratner, who dedicated her life to this important campaign. VAORRC is an umbrella organization of progressive organizations, including Veterans for Peace, and Vietnamese diaspora groups. Professor Ngo Thanh Nhan, Merle’s widower, says he is “very pleased that the CPUSA is joining this campaign.”
A similar sentiment was expressed by the leadership of VAVA, calling on the CPUSA to “rally friends to support the victims of Agent Orange” and “continue to condemn the misdeeds of the U.S. chemical companies that produced Agent Orange/dioxin for the U.S. military used in the Vietnam War from 1961 to 1971.”
VAVA stressed that the main goal is to “lobby U.S. politicians in Congress to pass a law authorizing assistance to Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange/dioxin.”
The goal of the campaign is to build grassroots pressure to pass Rep. Barbara Lee’s upcoming and latest version of the Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act, which aims to provide relief to victims in the United States, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.
Lee has introduced similar bills to Congress several times in the past, but they have not yet received enough support to pass. The goal of the CPUSA’s program is to raise awareness of Agent Orange victims among other progressive groups in the United States and to increase pressure on Congress.
Over sixty years have passed since Agent Orange was first sprayed on the people and land of Vietnam. How long must the victims wait until those responsible are held to account?
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