and other VA officials have,
even before reviewing the evidence
, [author’s italics] publically denied the existence of a correlation between exposure to dioxin and adverse health effects.” 2
He charges that Monsanto Corporation studies conducted on its employees to ascertain the effects of their exposure to dioxin were not only fraudulent, but had been “repeatedly cited by government officials to deny the existence of a relationship between health problems and exposure to agent Orange.…” 3
“Any Vietnam Veteran, or Vietnam Veteran’s child who has a birth defect,” writes Admiral Zumwalt, “should be presumed to have a service-connected health effect if that person suffers from the type of health effects consistent with dioxin exposure.…” 4
Vietnam veterans had been right all along. The government and the chemical companies had conspired for many years to deny them help. Government officials had in fact lied, scientists had cooked the research books, the Ranch Hand Study was a fraud,and officials sworn to support veterans had, instead, worked diligently to undermine them.
No one really knows, or ever will know, the exact number of US servicemen who have died from the effects of Agent Orange. We do not know how many veterans’ children were born with serious birth defects, how many young wives suffered numerous spontaneous abortions, or how many victims of Agent Orange, suffering from chronic pain and depression, might have taken their own lives.
Published in 1983,
Waiting for an Army to Die
ended with this warning:
“Vietnam veterans are our future, and that future is now.”
Since then, the cancer epidemic in this country and other parts of the world has killed millions of men, women, and children. According to the Institute of Medicine (202), cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. “This year alone,” says the IOM, “approximately 560,000 Americans will die of cancer-related causes and almost 1.4 million new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed. (IOM report, August 2002). The report goes on to say that there are approximately eighty thousand industrial chemicals now registered for use in the United States, “but very few have been tested for their health effects, singly, synergistically, or with different kinds of genetic patterns.” 5
The United States of America is a chemical warzone, a place of never ending fear that our family members, friends and neighbors will develop cancer. We watch loved ones undergo radiation treatment, chemotherapy and major operations. We wait, hope, and pray for miracles. The news media encourage us not to despair. Scientists will find a cure for cancer. Our children will live long lives. We will be there to see them marry. We will get to watch our grandchildren grow up. Meanwhile, corporations that place profit over people continue to poison our world with impunity.
For US soldiers and those who served from other countries in Vietnam, the Vietnamese people and their majestic rain forests, and children born so disabled they will never walk or talk or marryor have children of their own, Agent Orange is a monumental tragedy. Vietnam veterans were a throwaway army; the Vietnamese were a throwaway people. Children in this country and throughout the world are throwaway children. We are all Vietnam veterans; we are all Vietnamese, all guinea pigs in one the most diabolical experiments in human history.
Through the determined, unrelenting efforts of Vietnam veterans and their supporters, the Veterans Administration has finally agreed to pay “presumptive” compensation for a number of illnesses related to Agent Orange exposure. A partial list of these illnesses includes: Bell Cell Leukemias, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, Diabetes, Hodgkins Disease, Prostrate cancer, Soft Tissue Sarcoma, and other diseases.
In January 2009, president Obama nominated General Erik Shinseki to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. A Vietnam veteran
even before reviewing the evidence
, [author’s italics] publically denied the existence of a correlation between exposure to dioxin and adverse health effects.” 2
He charges that Monsanto Corporation studies conducted on its employees to ascertain the effects of their exposure to dioxin were not only fraudulent, but had been “repeatedly cited by government officials to deny the existence of a relationship between health problems and exposure to agent Orange.…” 3
“Any Vietnam Veteran, or Vietnam Veteran’s child who has a birth defect,” writes Admiral Zumwalt, “should be presumed to have a service-connected health effect if that person suffers from the type of health effects consistent with dioxin exposure.…” 4
Vietnam veterans had been right all along. The government and the chemical companies had conspired for many years to deny them help. Government officials had in fact lied, scientists had cooked the research books, the Ranch Hand Study was a fraud,and officials sworn to support veterans had, instead, worked diligently to undermine them.
No one really knows, or ever will know, the exact number of US servicemen who have died from the effects of Agent Orange. We do not know how many veterans’ children were born with serious birth defects, how many young wives suffered numerous spontaneous abortions, or how many victims of Agent Orange, suffering from chronic pain and depression, might have taken their own lives.
Published in 1983,
Waiting for an Army to Die
ended with this warning:
“Vietnam veterans are our future, and that future is now.”
Since then, the cancer epidemic in this country and other parts of the world has killed millions of men, women, and children. According to the Institute of Medicine (202), cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. “This year alone,” says the IOM, “approximately 560,000 Americans will die of cancer-related causes and almost 1.4 million new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed. (IOM report, August 2002). The report goes on to say that there are approximately eighty thousand industrial chemicals now registered for use in the United States, “but very few have been tested for their health effects, singly, synergistically, or with different kinds of genetic patterns.” 5
The United States of America is a chemical warzone, a place of never ending fear that our family members, friends and neighbors will develop cancer. We watch loved ones undergo radiation treatment, chemotherapy and major operations. We wait, hope, and pray for miracles. The news media encourage us not to despair. Scientists will find a cure for cancer. Our children will live long lives. We will be there to see them marry. We will get to watch our grandchildren grow up. Meanwhile, corporations that place profit over people continue to poison our world with impunity.
For US soldiers and those who served from other countries in Vietnam, the Vietnamese people and their majestic rain forests, and children born so disabled they will never walk or talk or marryor have children of their own, Agent Orange is a monumental tragedy. Vietnam veterans were a throwaway army; the Vietnamese were a throwaway people. Children in this country and throughout the world are throwaway children. We are all Vietnam veterans; we are all Vietnamese, all guinea pigs in one the most diabolical experiments in human history.
Through the determined, unrelenting efforts of Vietnam veterans and their supporters, the Veterans Administration has finally agreed to pay “presumptive” compensation for a number of illnesses related to Agent Orange exposure. A partial list of these illnesses includes: Bell Cell Leukemias, Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, Diabetes, Hodgkins Disease, Prostrate cancer, Soft Tissue Sarcoma, and other diseases.
In January 2009, president Obama nominated General Erik Shinseki to head the Department of Veterans Affairs. A Vietnam veteran