Agent Orange

June 14, 2004 1:46 PM

Vietnam's war against Agent Orange. "The Vietnam War ended in 1975, but the scourge of dioxin contamination from a herbicide known as Agent Orange did not."
posted by homunculus (12 comments total)

Here's the text of the lawsuit (PDF).
posted by homunculus at 1:49 PM on June 14, 2004

Here's a June 14, 2003 column from the Globe and Mail's Heather Mallick on this topic. (For those of you familiar with Mallick's work, don't be alarmed. She wrote this during one of her rare episodes of coherency.)
posted by orange swan at 2:04 PM on June 14, 2004

US Soldiers and children were affected also.
posted by stbalbach at 4:48 PM on June 14, 2004

Thanks for that link, orange swan.
posted by homunculus at 6:14 PM on June 14, 2004

You're welcome, homunculus.

I find it deeply depressing that this thread should only get a few comments, while a post about two words in the Pledge of Allegiance gets seventy-something comments. Vietnam deserves to get substantial support and aide in dealing with the environmental disaster caused by the Americans who never should have been in their country in the first place - but Americans simply don't care.
posted by orange swan at 8:14 PM on June 14, 2004

Orange swan, the problem is not caring, it is a problem with the system, systemic.

What we need is a functioning world justice system so that the victims can get financial restitution. However, between the margins of nation states there exists a wild west known as "International Law" where crooks and international corporations run through loopholes the size of elephants. Until global civilization advances to that point, we are still living in an essentially lawless world, at least for those who know how to play the system.
posted by stbalbach at 10:59 PM on June 14, 2004

One of the ironic things about this is that this is one situation where just throwing money at the problem would result in significant improvement. They wouldn't be trying to get people who've been killing each other for centuries to stop or any other culture clash resolved. The rate of return would be huge compared to most things the US spends money on abroad.

Imagine 1% of the money being wasted in Columbia trying to hold back the tide of cocaine redirected to Agent Orange clean up. The world would be a much better place on all three sides.
posted by Mitheral at 7:43 AM on June 15, 2004

The Vietnam Victims of Agent Orange Association's lawsuit is being brought in part under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which is one of Bush's and Blair's least favorite law.
posted by homunculus at 10:51 PM on June 15, 2004

laws.
posted by homunculus at 10:53 PM on June 15, 2004

Here's an article sent to me (and written by) a lurker named Gerard Greenfield.
posted by orange swan at 5:41 AM on June 18, 2004

Rehnquist, Cambodia & Abu Ghraib
posted by homunculus at 11:30 PM on June 25, 2004

US lawyers confident of justice for Vietnamese Agent Orange victims
posted by homunculus at 2:03 AM on July 13, 2004