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Achieving Justice for Vietnamese and US Agent Orange Victims

By Marty Webster

Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2011, H.R. 2634 Introduced in Congress

Fifty years after the US first sprayed Agent Orange in Vietnam, it continues to kill and maim Vietnamese and Americans. Legislation has just been introduced into the House that, for the first time, addresses the ongoing health problems of Vietnamese, children of US veterans, and Vietnamese Americans. The bill, H.R. 2634, Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2011, was introduced on July 25 by Ranking Member of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, Bob Filner, and was referred to the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Health, Foreign Affairs, and Energy and Commerce Committees. The bill is summarized below. The full text can be found at: http://thomas.loc.gov. Search for H.R. 2634.

This bill recognizes the common interest of Vietnamese and US victims of Agent Orange in addressing their common pain, once and for all! It provides comprehensive assistance for Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange and clean-up of the toxic hot spots in Vietnam where dioxin remains in the soil. It addresses the health care needs of the second and third generation of Agent Orange victims in the US, the children and grandchildren of veterans, who are suffering from birth defects and illnesses as a result of their fathers' exposure to Agent Orange. Vietnamese Americans who served, alongside US soldiers in Vietnam and their children and grandchildren are similarly affected by Agent Orange and the bill will provide health services to them.

Now, real help for these victims of Agent Orange is within our reach, but it will require focused work on the part of those of us who support it to motivate Congress to pass the bill. Our FIRST task is to obtain as many co-sponsors in the House of Representatives as possible — Democratic, Republican and Independent.

There are a number of things we can do as individuals and as members of VVAW:

• Organize educational activities. VAORRC will be developing a packet containing pamphlets, articles and videos which you can use to give presentations to your chapter and other organizations.
• Urge your representatives to co-sponsor the legislation to help the victims.
• Arrange meetings with your representative and with his or her veteran's and foreign-policy aides. This can be within the district, or in DC.
• Prior to meetings with the reps you should carefully plan the meeting, and develop clear talking points. Determine if they are members of the committees that will be considering the legislation and research their voting records on similar legislation. Do you have any friends in common?
• At the meetings, tell them why you believe this legislation is important to their veteran and other constituents, and why it is an important foreign policy initiative. Give them a copy of H.R. 2634.
• Use your personal experience with Agent Orange to emphasize the importance of taking care of the effects of war upon veterans and their families. Remind them that, while US veterans can get VA benefits for some Agent Orange related illnesses, their children and grandchildren get no help for AO related birth defects.
• Use your experience in traveling to Vietnam or meeting Vietnamese victims or watching a film or reading an article to explain why US veterans believe that our country has a responsibility to provide humanitarian assistance and environmental cleanup for Vietnamese people harmed by Agent Orange.
• Explain why Vietnamese Americans, who fought on the US side but do not receive veterans benefits and their family members, deserve medical assistance for their Agent Orange related health conditions.
• Explain that the bill, addressing the human needs of US veterans, Vietnamese and Vietnamese Americans and their children and grandchildren suffering from dioxin-related health conditions, addresses a common interest, and heals the wounds of war.
• Then ask your representative to commit to adding their name as a co-sponsor of the bill.
• If they agree to co-sponsor, thank them. If they say maybe, tell them you'll call or visit them again. If they say no, ask them why and thank them for their time. If they ask for more information, be sure to send it to them promptly, and then follow up with additional meetings or contacts.

We will provide you upon request with as many Agent Orange constituent cards as you need to be signed by as many people as possible. Please collect the signed cards and return them to VAORRC. We will sort them by congressional district and once we have significant numbers of cards in a district we will work with supporters in the district to present the cards to their representative in person.

To become involved or for further information please contact Marty Webster at 773-569-3520 or email mw.vvaw@gmail.com.

Summary of H.R. 2634
The Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2011

A. In Vietnam:

1. Provide resources for services for the disabled in areas where Agent Orange victims are concentrated. Provide medical services and nursing services for those harmed by Agent Orange. Develop community support organizations, including health care and educational and chronic care services and medical equipment to care for Vietnamese people harmed, including additional services as they are identified.
2. Fund the development of community support organizations, including health care assessment centers, educational, vocational, and physical rehabilitation centers, custodial care and daycare services and medical equipment.
3. Provide assistance in the repair and rebuilding of substandard homes for Agent Orange exposed families.
4. Provide micro grants and loans to enable Agent Orange affected victims to feed their families and escape from extreme poverty.
5. Provide the above resources by funding Vietnamese non-governmental organizations including the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin to engage in these activities.
6. Provide funding for remediation for areas in Vietnam that continue to contain high levels of dioxin.

B. In Vietnam and the US:

1. Provide support for research and active involvement of schools of public health and medicine for the study of the health consequences of the Vietnam War on all people affected by Agent Orange.

C. In the United States:

1. Extend the reopened National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study to a mortality and morbidity study to track all health outcomes in Vietnam veterans.
2. Establish multiple regional hospital, therapy, and research centers to provide specialists in environmental illnesses, state-of-the art diagnostic equipment, medicine, rehabilitative medicine, etc. to focus on the medical and emotional needs of the ill progeny of Vietnam veterans with childhood cancers, birth defects, and developmental disabilities. These centers are to be linked to existing medical and university-based medical centers. Transportation and housing support shall be provided for these families to travel to the centers for diagnostic evaluations and treatment.

D. For Vietnamese Americans:

1. Provide funds to public health and Vietnamese American organizations to conduct a broad health assessment of Vietnamese-Americans who may have been exposed to Agent Orange and their children, to determine the effects to their health from exposure to Agent Orange.
2. Develop centers in areas where Vietnamese Americans are concentrated to provide assessment, counseling, and treatment for Agent Orange related health conditions.

Marty Webster is a VVAW National Coordinator and a core member of the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign (VAORRC).