According to the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign, Wednesday August 10, 2011 marks the 50th anniversary of the United States Military’s first spraying of toxic chemicals in Vietnam. Rainbow herbicides, most notably Agent Orange, were used in combat by Marines, Navy, Army, and Air Force personnel against oppositional forces for a 10-year period, during the Vietnam War.# The chemicals, which often contained fairly lethal dosages of dioxins, were sprayed on more than 20,000 villages in concentrations up to 50 times the normal range of agricultural use. Most remembered as part of Operation Ranch Hand, Agent Orange and its counterparts were utilized in the embattled regions to defoliate vital natural resources (i.e.rice, cereal grain), remove canopy coverage from guerrilla combatants, and impose psychological devastation to the targeted enemy. Recent research suggests that the area of contamination is actually greater than the earlier estimate of 3.6 million acres; the toxins were distributed over 4.2 million acres.#

In the last half-century, continuous scientific investigation has outlined the mass detrimental outcomes of chemical exposure extending from the Vietnam War. Considering the US Department of Veterans Affairs reports that over 19 billion gallons were used during the Vietnam War, it comes as no surprise that over 2 million service-people were exposed to harmful amounts of herbicides.# Over the years, veterans have exhibited a wide array of symptoms related to Agent Orange exposure that have long-lasting and often fatal influences on physical and mental health.# However, the US government currently only recognizes those which have had the greatest empirical correlation with Agent Orange exposure. The VA provides disability compensation and health care benefits to veterans who have illnesses classified on the list of “Veterans' Diseases Related to Agent Orange Exposure”; Acute and Subacute Peripheral Neuropathy, AL Amyloidosis, Chloracne, Chronic C-cell Leukemias, Diabetes Mellitus (type 2), Hodgkin’s Disease, Ischemic Heart Disease, Multiple Myeloma, Non-Hodkins Lymphoma, Parkinson’s Disease, Porphyrica cutanea Tarda, Prostate Cancer, Respiratory Cancers, and Soft Tissue Sarcomas.#

To complement this information we may turn to Vietnam, wherein millions of people have experienced war-era toxin exposure and over 400,000 have died due to effects of the rainbow herbicides.# The US government is not currently providing direct aid to those combatants involved in the Vietnam War who are suffering similar illnesses related to the toxic chemicals.# Inhabitants of formerly-sprayed areas and those who came into direct contact with the agents also exhibit the same illnesses as US Veterans, such as skin disease and cancer. Moreover, there are extensive reports of miscarriage, stillbirth, and other reproductive issues for a large population of Vietnamese women over the last 40 years.#

I can give the US government credit for its attempts to ameliorate the pain and suffering of those with Agent Orange related illnesses. Legislation and NPO/NGO contributions have increased awareness and responsiveness. Although, as a Daughter of a Vietnam Veteran#, and a friend to countless people affected by the environmental contaminants, I can say that the assistance and, more importantly, the acknowledgment is too few and far between. In both Vietnam and the US (let alone other embattled regions such as Laos and Cambodia), there are generations of children and grandchildren that are still negatively influenced by the actions of the US military after nearly 5 decades have passed.

In the veteran (and children of veteran) communities, the phrase “deny, deny, deny until they die” has become a way of understanding the US Government’s response to innumerable claims that Vietnam-era toxin exposure has essentially ruined lives. Birth defects, learning disabilities, psychiatric symptoms, and developmental abnormalities are just some of the trans-generational detriments that are exhibited in thousands of veterans’ children as well as those in Vietnam.# While the VA recognizes a host of birth defects in the children of women veterans who served in the Vietnam War, the only birth-defect linked to male veterans exposed to Agent Orange is Spina Bifida. Those who wish to claim benefits for such ailments must go through a long, bureaucratic process filled with seemingly endless paperwork and little social resources. At the current time, there are no government-funded research or support centers established to specifically deal with the needs of children of Vietnam veterans influenced by dioxin exposure. Similarly, there are no such centers established for Vietnamese immigrants or Amerasian and Vietnamese descendants. Those of us who have lived to see the denial of our parents’ suffering by government leaders have made a promise to ourselves, our communities, and our children to disavow the ignorance and negligence that has stemmed from the Vietnam War.

Case in point, for millions of us, the war in Vietnam is not completely over. Even while conflict is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan, we are somewhat preoccupied by the fact that lessons have not been learned; that just as our parents were denied acknowledgment for the government’s wrongdoing, we may also be denied, and our children as well. As a veteran’s child who was not born during the war, I can only imagine the ongoing pain that has haunted other children for longer than I’ve been alive. One courageous woman, who has gone through a lifetime of obstacles related to her father’s agent orange exposure in Vietnam, informed me that on July 25, 2011 California House Representative Bob Filner (D) and Ranking Democratic Member on the House Veterans' Affairs Committee introduced H.R. 2634 to the 112th congress.# The bill, which is also known as The Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2011, will possibly begin the path of acknowledgment that has been looming for 50 years.
The legislation calls for the establishment of at least two VA medical centers for descendants of Vietnam-era veterans.# The proposed centers would employ specialists in environmental illnesses and rehabilitative medicine; use patient records and correspondence to research inter-generational effects of dioxin exposure; collaborate with pre-existing university medical centers and utilize innovative treatments; and finally, allocate housing and transportation assistance to those who must travel in order to seek treatment. The bill would require the expansion of the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study so that mortality and morbidity rates may be studied in hopes to examine health outcomes of Vietnam-era veterans. Additionally, the VA will grant assistance to public health organizations to assess Vietnamese-Americans who have also been influenced by dioxin toxicity. H.R. 2634 would prospectively establish health centers in areas of the United States with large populations of Vietnamese-Americans. Those institutions would assess, research, and treat those with ailments related to Agent orange exposure. All mentioned provisions of the legislation would be implemented within 18 months of its enactment.

The Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2011 is in the first phase of the legislative process.# Shortly after the bill was introduced, it was assigned to various committees- House Veterans Affairs, House Foreign Affairs, and House Energy and Commerce. If it receives favorable reports in all considerations, it will be introduced in the House of Representatives for a vote. Will it make it to the Senate, and maybe even the President? Or will the bill be all denied all-together? With all of the other political and economic issues that have been prioritized by mainstream media, it is unfortunate to see that this topic has fallen way below the radar. I am asking these questions and discussing this information to provide a medium for public awareness regarding the generations of agony due to the use of toxic herbicides in the Vietnam War. No legislation will ever provide complete redemption for the atrocities witnessed over the last half-century that are related to Agent Orange exposure. However, H.R.2634 may be a monumental step toward the reparation of a widespread, purposefully-ignored social injustice that has negatively impacted millions of people over the last 50 years.

Breanna Wilhelmi is a member of the Daughters of Vietnam Veterans, and is a member of the Vietnam Veterans of Ventura County. She is a graduate student studying clinical psychology. This article is dedicated to Heather Morris Bowser, an amazing inspiration and incredibly strong woman. Full resource information may be made available upon request.