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Agent
Orange |
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In1988 I was
diagnosed with soft tissue sarcoma cancer, which was a result of my
exposure to Agent Orange. The Vietnam War left many marks on our nation.
The war was devastating to many American soldiers and their families.
The defoliant Agent Orange was sprayed during the Vietnam War. The
aftermath would later on become one of the biggest cover-ups in American
history, and create a number of different illnesses among veterans and
their families. Agent Orange should not have been used in Vietnam
although its purpose was to help American soldiers locate and defeat the
enemy. The American Government dropped the ball in checking out its
health hazards and the long-term affects it would have on the country of
South Vietnam, the Vietnamese people and the many Americans who fought
there.
What
is Agent Orange?
Agent Orange
is a herbicide produced by combining equal parts of 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D.
This mixture produces an unwanted by-product called TCDD (a Dioxin). It
was used by the department of defense as a forest defoliant, to deny the
enemy shelter, hiding, and ambush cover and a method of destroying
enigma food crops. The military took little or no precautions in the
spraying because manuals described it as being relatively non-toxic to
man or animal. The application in Vietnam was by airplane, helicopter
riverboat, and some on foot with back pack spraying units. While the
military was not taking any protective measures the same product with
less TCDD was sold in the United States by Dow Chemical with the
warning: Caution may cause skin irritation. Avoid contact with eyes,
skin and clothing. Keep out of reach of children. Do not contaminate
irrigation ditches or water used for domestic purposes. Since the
Vietnam War dioxins have been called one of the most dangerous chemicals
known to man.
Effects
of Agent Orange:
Concerns
about the health affects of herbicides such as Agent Orange first
surfaced back in 1970. Since that time the debate over the health
affects of herbicides has been clouded by scientific uncertainty,
politics and a maelstrom of strong emotions. In 1983 Agent Orange was to
undertake three separate studies, which in the end resulted in three
false findings. Finally in 1990 the results of the selected cancer study
were out that Vietnam veterans were at a risk of contracting cancer due
to their exposure to defoliant Agent Orange. To date I can say that due
to many studies that have been done in the last three years, Vietnam
veterans, including myself, along with the National Academy of Sciences
have made great leaps and bounds in proving that Agent Orange exposure
did cause cancer and other problems among veterans. As of right now
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer, soft tissue sarcoma cancer and a skin
disease called Chloracne are considered service connected illnesses by
the Veterans Administration. The Center for Disease Control is
continuing to do research on the effects of Agent Orange. They are
finding that Agent Orange is directly responsible for illness in
veterans of the Vietnam era.
The
Cover Up:
The Agent
Orange cover up story can become an emotional thing for me to write
about. In 1988 I was a victim of defoliant Agent Orange. And after a
series of tests, two tumors the size of softballs were removed from my
abdomen which was diagnosed as a rare form of cancer usually found in
people in their sixties, along with a cyst that they extracted 5 and one
half liters of fluid from. There was actually no way of knowing how long
the cancer was in my system. I consider myself lucky today for I have
been clear from cancer now for 6 years. The U.S. sprayed 11.2 million
gallons of Agent Orange over the countryside during the Vietnam War.
Thousands of gallons of military defoliants were secretly shipped to
South Vietnam in the early 1960s. The spraying in Vietnam was started at
the urging of South Vietnamese president NGO Dinh Diem. The U.S. had
seriously considered having the spraying carried out by air force
officers in civilian disguise and flying mismarked aircraft because of
potential public impact of the campaign. There have been many incidents
over the years and many problems that have arose from information that
was shoved under the table including veterans who have died from the
effects of Agent Orange. The sad part is that the government should have
been up front with what they knew about Agent Orange and been willing to
admit that yes, Agent Orange was dangerous. That we need to check
veterans over immediately to see if we can try to prevent them from
becoming sick or contracting a disease, It’s now almost 25 years after
the war has ended and only in the last 3 years has there been a real
emphasis put on making this situation right. Dow chemical company in the
last few years has paid out approximately 180 million dollars to
veterans after veterans won a lawsuit which found Dow chemical
irresponsible when it came to making it known how hazardous these
chemicals were. One of the big reasons that Agent Orange was taken
serious by this country was because of the chief of naval operations,
Elmo R Zumwalt, Jr. As the navy’s top commander in Vietnam he ordered
that Agent Orange be sprayed in the Mekong delta region to destroy
vegetation. In 1988 Zumwalt’s son, Elmo the 3rd, a former
lieutenant who had served in the brown water navy died from a rare form
of lymphoma. Zumwalt believes his son’s exposure to Agent Orange was
responsible. Since that incident there have been new studies and
veterans are now being examined in VA hospitals around the country for
their exposure to Agent Orange.
Conclusion
To bring
this story to a conclusion I would like to say that Agent Orange in my
opinion was originally used to help us soldiers in their efforts to win
a very unpopular war. Agent Orange destroyed the jungle cover where the
enemy set up ambushes and also where they constantly pounded U.S. ships
from the shores of the Mekong delta. Without the jungle cover it was
impossible for them to fire rockets at the ships without the U.S.
soldiers seeing where they were. But also it is my opinion that the U.S.
dropped the ball because they failed to check out the hazards of this
chemical on the human body. It was a highly toxic dioxin that poisoned
the systems of many veterans and their families. How should I feel as a
veteran? Should I be angry that my own country sprayed me with a toxic
chemical that almost killed me back in 1988? Are there families of
veterans whose sons are dead now because this information wasn’t
released or looked into until almost 25 years later? We must continue on
today and research defoliant Agent Orange and try to make it right the
best we know how. I can tell you that the Vietnam veteran paid dearly
for many screw-ups and lost 55,000 lives. I believe that many lives were
saved during the Persian Gulf war because they didn’t make the same
mistakes there that they did in Vietnam. Gulf veterans who were exposed
to the smoke and fires are already receiving physical check ups for
respiratory problems that they are having.
April 26,
1994
For
More Information On Veterans Benefits Relating to Agent Orange
Click On
The Link
http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/21/benefits/herbicide/
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