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BOOK REVIEW: "Waiting for an Army to Die: The Tragedy of Agent Orange"

By Bob Spicher

In the process of writing Waiting for an Army to Die: The Tragedy of Agent Orange, Fred Wilcox traveled thousands of miles, poured through stacks of documents, and spoke with hundreds of people about Agent Orange. He interviewed scientist who have spent years researching the effects of dioxin on laboratory animals; veterans who are suffering from one or more of the symptoms associated with dioxin exposure; veteran's wives who have suffered repeated miscarriages or given birth to children with multiple birth defects; women living near Alsea, Oregon, whose complaints were instrumental in getting the EPA to suspend certain domestic uses of 2,3,4-T; lawyers for veterans who are suing the chemical companies; and many others.

This book will clarify matters for those who are confused or bewildered by contradictory reports on Agent Orange.

Wilcox tells of the ploys the Veterans Administration uses to avoid paying service-connected disability to victims of Agent Orange, and some of the individuals behind the ploys. Every step along the way the Vietnam veteran had to file a Freedom of Information Act against the VA and the Defense Department to get information. The VA uses its bureaucracy to keep putting up barriers of "no cause and effect," "no correlation," and never do the tests that might prove the vets are right about Agent Orange. Wilcox tells the story well.

And there are the stories of the veterans he met with cancer of the colon, testicular cancer, liver dysfunction, heart ailments, and veterans whose children were born with as many as sixteen birth defects.

The book also tells of some really great people like Maude DeVictor who, in 1977 was working in the Benefits Division of the VA's Regional Office in Chicago; her personal campaign of gathering statistics, against the orders of her superior, led to an hour-long documentary entitled "Agent Orange: The Deadly Fog" on the CBS affiliate in Chicago in March of 1980.

By 1978 articles about Agent Orange were appearing in local and national publications. Officials at the VA decided it was time for a strategy for dealing with Vietnam veterans' complaints. Wilcox tells the shocking story of how this strategy was arrived at.

Included in the book is the story of Agent Orange Victims International and how the lawsuit against the chemical companies and the VA came about.

The chapter "The Vietnamization of America" tells of the toxic herbicides being used in America— and how Agent Orange-type contamination continues.

Waiting for an Army to Die is a much-needed book and well worth reading by Vietnam vets, their families, and everyone concerned with our environment.

Bob Spicher
VVAW-Chicago