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Vets Demand Care, Hit Blackout: Agent Orange, Chemical Time Bomb in Vietnam Veterans

By VVAW

Agent Orange is the name of defoliant used in Indochina from 1963 up until Indochina was liberated in 1975. The U.S. government says that it stopped spraying the defoliant in 1970. In Vietnam that meant turning over the spray, providing the planes, and giving direction to the South Vietnamese troops to do exactly what U.S. troops had been doing earlier, but being able to proclaim innocence.

Many vets know about Agent Orange and some of the deadly effects it has had on the peoples of Indochina. Many more vets don't know about the potentials for their being affected since the government, the Veterans Administration and, with a few exceptions, the national media have not publicized the issue.

In fact the government and its agencies are now making a concerted attempt to cause Agent Orange to disappear, just like they tried for year to ignore the situation of Vietnam vets. For instance:

*When Wisconsin's Senator Proxmire was pushed by members of Milwaukee VVAW to inquire of the Veterans Administration concerning their plans around Agent Orange, the V.A.'s response said, in part, "Every veteran who presents a claim that he has some form of illness which he believes may have its origin in an exposure to herbicides will receive careful and sympathetic consideration (???) and full documentation will be established of all facts. At the present time, however, the Veterans Administration has no conclusive data incriminating the .... Herbicides as causative agents of any known category of disease or chronic symptoms. Nor is there persuasive evidence that the herbicides may increase the incidence or enhance the harmfulness of any naturally occurring disorders...."

*A quickly called Congressional hearing, taking place in the final week before Congress recessed, heard testimony from the Air Force, the Pentagon and the V.A. (none from concerned scientists who have been working on the problem for years, nor anything from affected Vietnam vets). Along the "facts" presented by an Air Force General were: Agent Orange was sprayed only in "remote areas." Of course that is exactly where hundreds of thousands of Indochinese people lived and where U.S. troops fought; further, thousands of vets saw Agent Orange being used on the perimeters of U.S. bases and along roads. Second, the General said that "only 6% of the defoliant ever reached the ground." The figure may be true in triple canopy jungle where it was sprayed only once, but the U.S. government sprayed areas repeatedly; and, with something as potent and lethal as Agent Orange, 6% is more than enough to infect those on the ground.

A third point the General let slip was the "fact" that the symptoms which are showing up in Vietnam vets are caused by "an ideology, not Agent Orange." He did not explain exactly how an "ideology" causes liver cancer or deformed children. But his aim was clear—try to set up the situation so that, as the battle to win treatment for Agent Orange continues, the V.A. can say, "It's all in your heads!"

*Finally, Dow Chemical Company hit the scene with a new report from their scientists. Dioxin (one of the most deadly chemicals known to man and a by-product of one of the two ingredients in Agent Orange), they discovered, occurs naturally. It comes from any kind of combustion (like lighting a cigarette) and therefore cannot be considered to be any of their responsibility. (It's like saying that if you shoot someone it's not your fault because lots of people die naturally.) Dow Chemical, manufacture of Agent Orange and the less-concentrated varieties now being used in the forestlands of the U.S., is clean and pure as the driven snow according to its own bought and paid-for scientists!

As the case with the atrocities of the Vietnam War, the attempt to bury the crime that Agent Orange represents has proved a flop.

When VVAW first heard about Agent Orange in late March, we had a good idea of how the VA would react. They would do anything they could to keep from spending a nickel for anything which doesn't turn them and their bosses a profit—especially if it concerns Vietnam vets. Vets in Milwaukee went to the VA to get tested for Agent Orange poisoning, but it turned out to be a phony test. After this, one official said, "The VA will move around this issue only when forced to." We were beginning to see that a long right was ahead of us. That fight continues.

Picket lines, demonstrations, confrontations with V.A. officials, work with the media, showing of the film "Agent Orange: Vietnam's Deadly Fog"—all these things have helped to get out the word about how Vietnam vets poisoned by Agent Orange have been ignored, how the government and the V.A. is trying to sweep these vets under the rug. As the struggle grew, vets discovered there were millions of allies, that groups which particularly concerned with the quality of our environment had been fighting the pollution caused by the U.S. versions of Agent Orange for years demanding that the Environmental protection Agency (EPA) ban the use of Agent Orange in the forests of the U.S. On Spray Day, October 2nd, a number of these groups joined in San Francisco for a rally followed by a march to the EPA offices.

A Black ex-Marine, exposed to Agent Orange while serving in a Marine artillery unit spoke for VVAW during the rally. He told of his own symptoms of Agent Orange poisoning—rashes, hypertension, inexplicable outbursts or rage—and how the V.A. and the government refuse to respond to the needs of veterans since there is no profit to be made in treating vets of their families. He pointed out that his own experience had taught him how vets have been used once and then thrown away; the audience cheered loudly when he said that vets will fight for what we need—and we will not fight another rich man's war!

As he stepped off the podium, a vet with tears in his eyes embraced him, and many of the people there told him how they appreciated his words; vets thanked him for being there and speaking for vets. Finally, the rally moved to the EPA offices to demand a ban of chemical sprays using ingredients in Agent Orange and presenting a petition to EPA officials demanding immediate suspension of the use of 2,4,5-T.

Spray Day and the coalition which sponsored it dramatized the widespread of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T in the U.S. today. The chemicals, originally developed at the Army's Chemical and Biological Warfare Center, are effective in getting rid of undergrowth, making them highly profitable for lumber and paper0making companies, to say nothing of the huge profits which pour into corporations like Dow Chemical, one of the companies producing the herbicide. And as in Vietnam, the fact that people may be destroyed, comes in as a poor second in the headlong race for profits.

On October 21st, as set up by the National Meeting of VVAW, chapters of the organization in a number of cities held "Agent Orange Day," a time for us to get out to publicize the situation that vets face and to demand that Veterans Administration publicize, test for, treat, and compensate victims of Agent Orange poisoning.

Vets took to the streets in San Francisco, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Ann Arbor, Chicago, and New York City; friends and supporters of VVAW helped out in other places by writing letters to local TV stations demanding that they publicize Agent Orange and by talking to Vietnam vets.

In San Francisco VVAW held its Agent Orange Day at the main downtown recruiters' stations, getting out the word to potential veterans that the military would deal with them the same way we were dealt with—promise us anything but only provide the fighting, none of the benefits. In Twin Cities in Minnesota, vets went to the V.A. hospital to demand treatment for Agent Orange. In Milwaukee a car caravan through the city ended up at the V.A. After phoney tests for Agent Orange, given went the V.A. still hadn't decided what it was going to do about the situation, vets in Milwaukee had a special reason to be angry. But their anger brought results—see the article about "retesting" in this issue of THE VETERAN.

At the same time, at the Times Square recruiting station in New York City, New York City vets were taking out the same demand to the people of that city, talking to vets and to do some of the millions of non-vets also concerned about the situation of veterans. In Ann Arbor, members of VVAW went to the V.A. hospital there to demand treatment. In Chicago, members of the chapter unrolled a banner demanding treatment for Agent Orange at Daley Plaza in the middle of the downtown area. Vets were soon moved off the Plaza by the police whose bosses decided that such a protest was not what they wanted people coming to a ceremony on the Plaza in honor of the new Pope to see. Vets held their picket line and rally across the street, finding hundreds of passer-by who had heard of Agent Orange and who agreed with VVAW that the V.A. had the responsibility for finding a solution to this problem faced by vets.

Nine months after the story of Agent Orange poisoning first hit the front pages, the V.A. has done little to provide vets with what is needed to test for and treat the effects of the defoliant. But the protests of veterans—activities like Agent Orange Day—the spotlight being shined by environmental groups, and the concern voiced by many people are backing the government and the V.A. into a corner. Their reaction so far has been refusal, then attempts to plaster over the holes in their story. But it is only because vets and others have not allowed the issue to die and they have been forced to go this far and to begin to at least talk about developing a program for testing and treatment. The fight to get what we need, especially with the help of victims of the poison, will force the C.A. and the system behind it to give in and treat Agent Orange!