wfn.org | Decades after Vietnam, Agent Orange still maims

["Philip Jenks" <pjenks@ncccusa.org>]

Former NCC President Michael E. Livingston:

Decades after Vietnam, Agent Orange still maims

See: http://www.ncccusa.org/news/100609vietnam.html

New York, June 10, 2010 -- Editor's Note: Last month former National  Council 
of Churches President Michael E. Livingston was a member of an  interfaith 
delegation to Vietnam to observe the continuing effects of  Agent Orange and 
dioxin, chemicals used as defoliants during the Vietnam  War to clear over 5 
million acres of Vietnamese land. Some 4.5 million  Vietnamese and 2.8 million 
Americans may have been exposed to the  chemical, which has been linked to 
cancer, diabetes, and nerve and heart  disorders. The Vietnam Red Cross 
estimates that up to 3 million  Vietnamese have suffered adverse health 
effects, including more than  150,000 children with spina bifida and other 
birth defects, from their  exposure. The interfaith delegation was supported by 
the Ford Foundation  and led by the Rev. Bob Edgar, former NCC General 
Secretary, now  President and CEO of Common Cause. This is Michael Livingston's 
report.

>By Michael E. Livingston

For a week, May 21-29, I visited places whose names were inescapable  during 
the late sixties and early seventies of my college and seminary  days: Saigon 
(now Ho Chi Minh City), Da Nang, and Hanoi.  I was not sure  what to expect but 
I am deeply humbled by what I saw and experienced.  I  was part of an 
Interfaith Delegation investigating the continuing  effects of Agent Orange and 
the deadly chemical, dioxin, on the people  and the environment of Vietnam.

Thirty five years after the end of the war, Vietnam is thriving as a  nation.  
Unemployment is low, eighty-five percent of the people live  above the poverty 
line, one can walk the streets of any major city day  or night and feel-and 
be-completely safe and free from harm.  This does  not mean Vietnam is not 
haunted by the after-effects of a devastating  war that may not truly be over 
until there is a greater measure of  relief from the horrors of Agent Orange 
and dioxin.
Created by U.S. chemical companies, Agent Orange was part of a  comprehensive 
aerial campaign to defoliate vegetation providing cover  for combatants and 
sustenance for civilians and soldiers alike.  An area  of southern Vietnam 
roughly the size of Massachusetts was sprayed with  toxins that began killing 
civilians and soldiers on both sides of the  conflict.

The destruction and the dying continue to this day and beyond.   Vietnamese and 
American soldiers, their children and grandchildren, in  numbers estimated to 
be in the millions, have been severely affected by  toxins in the chemical 
compounds with colorful names used in the  spraying:  Agent Orange with dioxin, 
created by U.S. chemical companies  was the most lethal toxin.

Vietnam and the United States were on opposite sides of this war but the  
suffering set loose upon survivors does not respect national boundaries.   "Hot 
spots" in both countries were Agent Orange was produced or stored  remain 
highly toxic and have yet to be decontaminated.  Vietnam has  twenty-eight "hot 
spots," three of them of the highest level of concern.

I bought a pair of cheap shoes along with every member or our  delegation, so 
that we could walk a section of the grounds at the  airport in Da Nang where 
Agent Orange was stored.  The area is covered  with concrete to keep the 
contaminated soil from seeping from the ground  into a stream that flows into a 
lake a few miles away.  The concrete  containment came years after the ground 
and water were profoundly  polluted and the toxins were deposited into the 
ecosystem where they  have been spread by water, vegetation, even breast milk 
into the bodies  of hundreds of thousands, perhaps a few million people.

I sat on the floor face to face with "the least of these" at the center  for 
children with disabilities in Cu Chi, and the Da Nang Association of  Victims 
of Agent Orange (DAVA) Children's Care Center.  These children  bear in their 
bodies the legacy of war for generations to come.

In small pairings our delegation was welcomed into the homes of children  and 
their families struggling to redefine what family life means with  resources 
too meager to match the ravages of dioxin upon the human body.   One boy sat 
and looked at me with what I thought were vacant eyes but  he responded with a 
faint smile when I showed him a picture I took of  him.  An aide raised his 
shirt revealing what looked like his spinal  column protruding well into his 
breast.  None of the children could  speak more than a word or two.  Few of 
them, aged two to 17, could stand  or even sit without support.

Agent Orange and other herbicides sprayed in Vietnam were contaminated  with 
dioxin, a persistent organic pollutant linked to cancers, diabetes,  birth 
defects and other disabilities.  Here in the U.S. our government  has been slow 
to provide adequate care for the thousands of veterans of  the war suffering 
the effects of exposure to Agent Orange.  We have only  recently begun 
providing any support for cleaning up hot spots in  Vietnam.

The delegation met with local and national government officials, among  them:  
Madame Tòng Thi Phóng, Vice Chairman of the National Assembly  of Vietnam, the 
second ranked official in the National Assembly, Mr.  Pham Binh Minh, Deputy 
Minister, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Van  Huu Chien, Executive 
vice-chair, Da Nang Peoples committee, as well as  Ambassador Michael Michalak, 
of our own American Embassy.

The delegation was organized by Rev. Robert Edgar, President and CEO of  Common 
Cause, and funded by the Ford Foundation.  Ford has done  remarkable work in 
Vietnam beginning soon after relations with the  United States were normalized 
in 1985. Susan Berresford, a former  President of the Ford Foundation and Dr. 
Charles Bailey, who directed  the work of the Foundation in Vietnam were 
members of the delegation.

Since returning, the delegation has endorsed and plans to work in  support of 
the "Declaration and Plan of Action" developed by the  U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue 
Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin.  The Dialogue Group  is convened by Susan 
Berresford.  It's American Co-Chair is Walter  Isaacson, President and CEO of 
The Aspen Institute.  The Vietnamese  Co-Chair is Ambassador Ngo Quang Xuan, 
Vice Chair of the Foreign Affairs  Committee of the National Assembly of 
Vietnam.   The plan calls for  a ten year, 30 million dollar per year 
commitment to fund a  comprehensive humanitarian effort to deal with the 
continuing after  effects of Agent Orange-dioxin.  

>---

In addition to Livingston and Edgar, members of the delegation included  Sister 
Maureen Fiedler, Sister of Loretto, PhD. and host of the public  radio talk 
show Interfaith Voices; Rabbi Steve Gutow, President and CEO,  Jewish Council 
for Public  Affairs; the Rev. Richard Cizik, President  of the New Evangelical 
Partnership for the Common Good and a Fellow at  the Open Society Institute and 
UN Foundation; Mr. James Winkler, General  Secretary, United Methodist General 
Board of Church and Society; Dr.  Carroll A. Baltimore, Sr., First Vice 
President, Progressive National  Baptist Convention; Ms. Paulette Peterson, 
Clinical Psychologist, U.S.  Veterans Administration; Mr. Shariq A. Siddiqui, 
the Executive Director  of the Muslim Alliance of Indiana and Director of Legal 
Services at the  Julian Center;  and the Rev. Victor Hsu, former staff for 
Asian Affairs  at both World Vision and Church World Service.
                         

>---

Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of  Christ in 
the USA has been the leading force for ecumenical cooperation  among Christians 
in the United States. The NCC's member faith groups -  from a wide spectrum of 
Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical,  historic African American and 
Living Peace churches - include 45 million  persons in more than 100,000 local 
congregations in communities across  the nation.

NCC News contact:  Philip E. Jenks, 212-870-2228 (office),  646-853-4212 
(cell), pjenks@ncccusa.org