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Defoliant Agent Orange: Chemical Time Bomb in Vietnam Veterans

By VVAW

AGENT ORANGE--the newest outrage faced by Vietnam vets. The powerful defoliant was sprayed all over Vietnam, killing jungles, crops, unborn children--and caused deformities in kids whose mothers were hit by the spray.

Vietnam vets go hit by the same spray--we walked through defoliated areas right after they were sprayed, we mixed the defoliant, we drank the water and flew the planes. And vets are now finding some of the effects of that chemical: skin rashes, numbness in fingers and toes, possible cancer, even deformed children. The chemical can sit in the body for years, then suddenly the effects appear.

Confronted by this new service-connected disability, the Veterans Administration has flip-flopped from "We want to do all we can to help" to "You have to prove that cause and effect are connected." The VA can see the possibilities of having to treat thousands of vets at a time when the bosses who run the country are slicing VA budgets, since healthcare in the VA doesn't make them profits.

Vets are experienced in being used once to fight a rich man's war, and then being tossed aside--the VA's attitude toward AGENT ORANGE merely underlines how we are thrown away.

The fight against this newest outrage has already begun--you can join the struggle. For more information both about the effects of AGENT ORANGE and the struggle, see article on Page 7.