This workshop was presented by VAORRC as part of the Veterans For Peace 2021 Online Convention
Sixty years ago, the United States sprayed approximately 19 million gallons of 15 different herbicides, collectively known as Agent Orange, over Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Between 2.1 and 4.8 million Vietnamese were exposed during the spraying and many more continue to be exposed through the environment. Agent Orange exposure continues to negatively affect the lives of men and women in Vietnam and in the United States. Agent Orange exposure is associated with cancers, immune deficiencies, reproductive illnesses, and severe birth defects in Vietnamese, American, and Vietnamese Americans directly exposed as well as their children and grandchildren.
Featured presenter: Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong
Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong is a leading physician/researcher on the effects of Agent Orange/dioxin on women and children in Viet Nam. Dr. Phuong is a gynecologist/obstetrician, past chairwoman of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacology. Dr. Phuong has studied, researched, and published extensively on the deleterious effects of Agent Orange on the people of Viet Nam. During the war she personally witnessed the births of babies born with severe birth defects to mothers sprayed by the chemicals. Dr. Phuong chaired the Vietnam-US Friendship Association in Ho Chi Minh City and was on the executive board of the HCMC Association of Agent Orange Victims.
Take action today
On May 25, 2021 Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) introduced H.R. 3518, the Victims of Agent Orange Relief Act of 2021, in the House of Representatives. “The United States has a moral responsibility to compensate the victims of the Agent Orange campaign. In the same way we are focused on beginning to repair the damage of systemic racism in the form of reparations, and the war on drugs with restorative justice, it is also our responsibility to try and atone for this disgraceful campaign during the Vietnam War.” We will discuss an overview of the use of Agent Orange/dioxin in southeast Asia, studies on the deleterious impact of the chemicals when sprayed directly on the Vietnamese and US troops, transgenerational harm on the children born to US soldiers and Vietnamese, including the VFP campaign on HR 3518.
