HANOI – Thirty-five years after the Vietnam War, a US$300 million ($430 million) price tag has been placed on the most contentious legacy still tainting United States-Vietnam relations: Agent Orange.
A joint panel of US and Vietnamese policymakers, citizens and scientists released an action plan yesterday, urging the US Government and other donors to provide an estimated US$30 million annually over 10 years to clean up sites still contaminated by dioxin, a toxic chemical used in the defoliant.
The funding would also be used to treat Vietnamese suffering from disabilities, including those believed linked to exposure to Agent Orange, which was dumped by the US military in vast quantities over former South Vietnam to destroy crops and jungle cover shielding communist guerrilla fighters.
Washington has quibbled for years with its former foe over the need for more scientific research to show that the herbicide caused health problems and birth defects among Vietnamese.
“We are talking about something that is a major legacy of the Vietnam War, a major irritant in this important relationship,” said Walter Isaacson, co-chair of the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin that released the report.
“The cleanup of our mess from the Vietnam War will be far less costly than the Gulf oil spill that BP will have to clean up.”
Isaacson said he hoped the US Government will provide at least half the US$300 million needed by 2020.
Dioxin has been linked to cancers, birth defects and other ailments. A Canadian study showed that dioxin levels in some blood and breast milk samples taken from people who had lived near the Danang air base site were 100 times above safe levels. Dioxin levels in soil, sediment and fish were 300 to 400 times above international limits.
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