Vietweek 17_23 August 2012

4
NATION
AUGUST 17 - 23, 2012
Da Nang Agent Orange
a first step, but questions
Critics say US engagement
on dioxin could be realpolitik,
not humanitarianism
By AN DIEN – JON DILLINGHAM
N
o sooner had US and
Vietnamese
officials
clapped after cutting the
ribbon than Nguyen Van Tinh
sulked away from the site. He was
clearly a troubled man.
It was the start of a US­Vietnam
project to clean up dioxin, the toxic
chemical left behind by Agent
Orange, at a former American
airbase in the central city of Da
Nang.
Tinh stood next to a barbed wire
fence that marked the boundary of
the airbase near Da Nang
International Airport.
“Everybody is hopeful that the
dioxin contamination will be over.
I’m concerned it will continue to be
here,” he told Vietweek.
People in Da Nang’s Thanh Khe
District, of which Tinh is the
deputy mayor, have for years
eaten their catches from Xuan Hoa
A Lake, which is fed directly by the
dioxin­contaminated Sen (Lotus)
Lake next to the airbase.
At a conference on August 8, a
day before the dioxin cleanup
project began, Tinh had grilled US
and Vietnamese officials on what
they planned to do about the likely
dioxin contamination in Xuan Hoa
A Lake, which is in his district. But
no one had a satisfactory answer.
“We need to know exactly how
serious the dioxin contamination
there is,” he said.
Tinh was not the only one who
was not celebrating the start of the
US$43­million project that has
attracted international attention.
Analysts have raised two
important questions: how much
will the cleanup benefit Vietnam’s
millions of Agent Orange victims?
And is the move less humanitarian
than it is a clever geopolitical ploy
to enhance US power in Asia as a
buffer against China?
Double standards
The Da Nang cleanup project
aims to decontaminate around
73,000 cubic meters of soil and
sediment by late 2016, using
thermal desorption technology.
Workers will dig up contaminated
soil and sediment and place it in a
stockpile. The soil will then be
heated to temperatures high
enough to break down the dioxin.
Asked if the project means the
US was taking responsibility for
Agent Orange, David Shear, the
US ambassador, dodged the
question. “We certainly take the
Vietnamese concerns about this
extremely seriously,” he told a
group of reporters at the cleanup’s
opening ceremony last week.
Between 1961 and 1971, the US
Army sprayed some 80 million
liters of Agent Orange containing
366 kilograms of the highly toxic
dioxin over 30,000 square miles of
southern Vietnam. Dioxin, a highly
toxic chemical in the defoliant
used by the US troops to strip
Vietnamese forces of ground cover
and food, stays in the soil and
sediment at the bottom of lakes
and rivers for generations. It can
enter the food supply through the
fat of fish and other animals and
has been found at alarmingly high
levels in breastmilk that dioxin­
contaminated mothers have fed
their children.
The US Congress appropriated
an initial $3 million for cleaning up
dioxin hotspots in Vietnam in 2007
and in April 2011 approved
another $18.5 million in new
funding
to
address
the
consequences of Agent Orange.
Between 2.1 to 4.8 million
Vietnamese citizens were directly
exposed to Agent Orange and
other chemicals that have been
linked to cancers, birth defects and
other chronic diseases during the
Vietnam War, which ended in
April 1975, according to the
Vietnam Red Cross.
Washington has bristled at these
estimates. It has maintained that
there is no clear link between
Agent Orange and the myriad
health problems.
But at the same time, the US has
come to acknowledge a number of
conditions and diseases as
associated with Agent Orange
exposure in its own veterans and
has thus compensated them
accordingly. It refuses to do so for
the Vietnamese who were on the
receiving end of the spraying.
Some American veterans have
expressed sympathy toward their
Vietnamese counterparts, and
bitterness toward their own
government for the perceived
injustice.
“I have always argued that, at the
very least, the US recognize the
same illnesses they recognize in the
American veteran who suffers from
Agent Orange related diseases in
the Vietnamese,” said Chuck
Palazzo, a former US Marine and
combat veteran in Vietnam (1970­
1971) who now lives in Da Nang.
“It is hypocritical for the US to
place this unnecessary burden of
proof on the Vietnamese while it
does not do so for its own
veterans.”
The US said it has provided $54
million since 1989 to help
Vietnamese with disabilities, but
also stressed that such assistance
was “regardless of cause.”
Despite
overwhelming
international and Vietnamese
studies linking dioxin to health
calamities, the US has been calling
for increased research on the
effects of the chemical on the
Vietnamese population.
The US and Vietnam have not
jointly conducted any research on
the health effects of Agent Orange
on human beings. The two
countries signed a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) in 2002 that
outlined comprehensive human
health investigations and studies
addressing the environmental
consequences of Agent Orange.
But experts now fear the study
will never be undertaken.
Wayne Dwernychuk, an Agent
Orange specialist and retired senior
scientist at Canadian environmental
firm Hatfield, wrote in a recent
article:
“Although
the
environmental component of the
MOU gained traction and resulted
in valuable information being
gathered, the human health
segment became mired in
controversy and disagreements on
protocol,
and
eventually
disintegrated, thus terminating any
attempt to cooperatively study the
human health consequences of the
herbicide in the Vietnam theater of
conflict.”
But like Palazzo, Dwernychuk
points to the fact that the US
recognizes Agent Orange as the
cause of its own veterans’
problems while arguing that it
might not be the cause of the same
problems in Vietnam.
“The US policy is based on the
‘presumption of an association’
between exposure and disease, not
on a ‘proof of cause and effect,’”
Dwernychuk wrote, adding that
the US compensates its veterans
based on whether or not they had
“boots on the ground” in Vietnam
during the war.
“If this ‘relationship’ holds for
US Vietnam veterans in the eyes of
the US Department of Veterans
Affairs, I ask why does it not hold
for the Vietnamese people for the
expression of the same illnesses
that coincide with their exposure
to Agent Orange?”
Asked by Vietweek why the US
demands more evidence to
compensate Vietnamese victims
that it does for Americans, Spencer
Cryder, the US embassy press
attaché, failed to answer the
question in his emailed reply.
According to Fred Wilcox,
author of Scorched Earth: Legacies of
Chemical Warfare in Vietnam, the
first book of testimonies of
Vietnamese victims of Agent
Orange, the cleanup in Da Nang
does not reflect a change in US
policy on Agent Orange.
“So while it might seem that
removing dioxin from the soil
around Da Nang is a great step
forward in resolving the Agent
Orange issue, I think that it is a
clever way for the US government
NATION
AUGUST 17 - 23, 2012
cleanup
s abound
Chomsky emphasized the context
of the Da Nang cleanup: “It is now
more than 50 years since President
John F. Kennedy authorized
chemical warfare in South Vietnam
to destroy food crops and ground
cover, part of his sharp escalation
of a war that became the worst
crime since World War II as it
spread over all of Indochina, with
shocking consequences until the
present day.”
“A second crime is the virtual
suppression of the truth about
these matters in the United States,”
Chomsky wrote in an email to
Vietweek.
“One should recall that shortly
after US troops were withdrawn,
President Jimmy Carter, probably
the most moderate of US
presidents, informed the press that
we owe Vietnam ‘no debt’ because
‘the destruction was mutual,’
eliciting no comment.”
Around five million Vietnamese
were killed in the Vietnam War,
and hundreds of thousands are
still missing. Less than 60,000
Americans died.
PHOTO: AFP
Nguyen Thi Binh (1st, L), 76, talks to
reporters during an interview next to her
mentally and physically disabled children
(L-R) Nguyen Thanh Cong, 37, Nguyen
Thi Phiet, 54 and Nguyen Thi Phuoc, 50,
at her home near Da Nang City's airport,
where a ground-breaking ceremony of
the joint US-Vietnam Dioxin Cleaning
Project was held on August 9
and chemical companies to avoid
taking responsibility for war
crimes,” Wilcox told Vietweek.
He said that by agreeing to
spend $43 million to remove
dioxin from the soil around Da
Nang, “it would appear that the
US government does realize that
human beings should never be
exposed to even minute quantities
of dioxin.”
“Nevertheless, the government
refuses to compensate Vietnamese
victims of chemical warfare because
to do so would mean admitting that
the US committed war crimes in
Vietnam,” Wilcox said.
“This would open the door to
lawsuits that would cost the
government billions of dollars.”
Decades of denial
American political author Noam
Geopolitics
Even once the two former foes
normalized relations in 1995 after
a crippling post­war US embargo
had strangled Vietnam for twenty
years, Vietnamese diplomats
considered Agent Orange the
singularly thorny issue that
thwarted the full thawing of
relations.
But they also noted that there
have been signs of progress as the
US, which previously dismissed
Vietnam’s assertion that Agent
Orange caused health problems as
“propaganda,” has come to
acknowledge the need to modify
its policy in this regard.
According to a report prepared
in 2009 by Michael Martin of the
Congressional Research Service,
one potential benefit of the
development of a comprehensive
policy on Agent Orange in
Vietnam
could
be
the
enhancement of the US’s soft
power in Southeast Asia.
A year later, the US­Vietnam
Dialogue Group on Agent
Orange/Dioxin, a panel of
policymakers, scientists and
citizens formed in 2007 to look for
ways to address the lingering
issue, launched an action plan
urging for the first time the US
government and other donors to
provide an estimated total of $300
million over the next decade to
clean up sites still contaminated by
dioxin and treat Vietnamese with
disabilities, including those
believed linked to Agent Orange
exposure.
The first phase of the Da Nang
cleanup began with work of
removing unexploded ordnances
in June last year. It formally kicked
off after the Obama administration
announced a “pivot” toward the
economically resilient Asia­Pacific
region and amidst rising tensions
between Vietnam and China in the
East Sea, also known as the South
China Sea, which is believed to be
rich in oil and gas reserves and
straddles vital global shipping
lines.
Several experts have said the
event must be considered from a
global geopolitical point of view:
Da Nang is a strategic deep water
harbor in the East Sea, where
China is rapidly expanding its
military, economic and civilian
presence.
Former
Vietnam
War
correspondent and author John
Pilger told Vietweek that the
cleanup in Da Nang was
“designed, I suggest, to persuade
the government of Vietnam to join
the US anti­China campaign.”
Asked to be more clear if the
cleanup in Da Nang was in fact a
way for the US to gain influence in
the region, Martin did not mention
his earlier report’s claim that the
two developments might be
related:
“The current clean­up project is
being supported primarily to
remove a harmful chemical from
the environment so it can no
longer possibly contribute to
health problems among the people
of Da Nang,” he told Vietweek.
However, Mark Valencia, a
Hawaii­based expert on the East
Sea dispute, said reading the Da
Nang cleanup as part of a larger
US campaign to gain Asian allies
and enhance US power in the
region as a buffer against China
was correct.
Though he said the dioxin
cleanup was “too little too late” he
also hoped it would lead to a
wider and more intensive effort to
clean up the residue and treat the
human effects of Agent Orange.
“Its [Agent Orange’s] use was
chemical
warfare
really—
something the US routinely accuses
‘rogue’ countries of planning or
implementing,” Valencia said.
Carl Thayer, a Vietnam expert at
the University of New South Wales
in Australia, disagreed that the Da
Nang cleanup was part of US
efforts to counter Chinese power in
the region, but said that Vietnam
still plays a role in such efforts.
“The real linkage in US thinking
is access for its military in Vietnam
in exchange for countering China
in the South China Sea.”
‘Dad, am I contaminated?’
Supporters and critics – and
critical supporters – of the Da
Nang cleanup all agree on one
thing: Da Nang is only one of
dozens of site in need of serious
cleanup.
The Bien Hoa Airbase in the
south, and Da Nang and Phu Cat
airports in central Vietnam are
widely recognized as major
“dioxin hotspots” where Agent
Orange and other toxic herbicides
were mixed, stored, loaded onto
planes and spilled by US military
personnel during the Vietnam
War.
Cryder, the US embassy
spokesman, said: “At the
[Vietnamese
government]’s
request, we have focused so far on
Da Nang.”
But he added that the US is also
preparing an environmental
assessment of the Bien Hoa
hotspot in coordination with the
Vietnamese government, the
United Nations Development
Program, and other donors.
On a Sunday afternoon, Bien
Hung Park in Bien Hoa Town
seemed like an ideal getaway from
sultry Ho Chi Minh City – 35
kilometers southeast of the
southern town.
But in April last year, Hatfield
released new findings that
confirmed the presence of military
defoliants in Bien Hung Lake
sediment. The Canadian firm also
warned the local government to
keep people from the cultivation of
fish, ducks, and livestock at Bien
Hoa Airbase.
Little has been done at Bien Hung
Park to inform the public of the
findings – save a few scant “no
fishing” signs that do not elaborate.
But residents told Vietweek they
knew the story.
“I have been living here for
decades
and
the
dioxin
contamination is nothing strange
to me,” said Chau Van Tuong, a 37­
year­old local who was sipping a
tiny cup of ruou de (fermented rice
alcohol) on the edge of the Bien
Hung Lake. He lives in a
neighborhood adjacent to the park.
“We have been fishing and
eating the catch here for years,”
Tuong said.
Tuong said his second brother
and fourth sister scout for fish and
snails in the lake to eke out a
living. They have both tested
positive for dioxin contamination.
Two of his sister’s sons died at
birth and two of his brother’s
children are mentally retarded.
Tuong blamed all the illnesses
on the exposure to dioxin. He was
fully aware of the new Da Nang
cleanup.
“Why don’t they clean up all the
mess across the country at the
same time? The victims have no
time to wait,” Tuong said.
Tuong himself has two kids with
his oldest daughter at age 10. She
has been doing well so far, he said.
“But I’m scared whenever I
think about my unfortunate
brother and sister,” he said. “I
don’t know what will happen to
my kids.”
His daughter, Mai, was playing
on a bright green lawn next to him.
Hearing what her father said, she
stopped playing and came to ask
him: “Dad, am I [dioxin]
contaminated?”
“No, dear,” Tuong replied.
“You’ll be fine. Everything will be
fine.”
CALVIN GODFREY contributed to this report
5
Upcoming events
n AUGUST 17-18 (FRIDAYSATURDAY): A concert,
“Rachmaninov Night”, will begin 8
p.m. at the Hanoi Opera House, 1
Trang Tien Street with the
performance of conductor Le Phi
Phi, piano soloist Guigla Katsarava
and the Vietnam National Symphony
Orchestra. The program will feature
Sergei Rachmaninov’s Piano
Concerto No.2 C minor Op.18 and
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n AUGUST 22 (WEDNESDAY): The
American Chamber of
Commerce’s Morning Briefing on
How to Successfully Penetrate the
US Market will be held from 8 a.m.
to 11 a.m. at the New World Saigon
Hotel, 76 Le Lai Street, District 1, Ho
Chi Minh City. Speaker: Mr. Sorin
Witzman, an internationally known
executive adviser in the field of
quality programs and quality
solutions, who for the last 20 years
has helped many large companies
(Nortel, Cisco, Spectrian, Blue Coat,
EiC, 2 Wire, etc.) achieve even
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non-members.
n AUGUST 22 (WEDNESDAY):
The Malaysia Business Chamber
(MBC) Luncheon - When Banks
Won't Lend: What are Your
Options for Financing? Will be held
from 11:30 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. at the
New World Saigon Hotel, 76 Le Lai
Street, District 1, HCMC. Speakers:
Ms. Yei Pheck Joo Josephine,
CEO of Saigonbank Berjaya
Securities Joint Stock Company
(SBB), and Mr. Tran Phuong Bac, a
member of HCMC Bar Association
and Partner of Luat Viet. Admission
fee: VND750,000 for MBC members
and co-hosts and VND850,000 for
non-members. For registration, email
to info@mbc.vn or call (08) 6258
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n AUGUST 23 (THURSDAY):
EuroCham Business Luncheon Updates on Vietnam Retail and
Consumer Trends 2012/2013 will be
held from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at
the Sofitel Plaza Saigon, 17 Le Duan
Street, District 1, HCMC. Guest
speakers: Mr. Rik Mekkelholt National Shopping Mall Director, Big
C Vietnam; Mr. Troy Griffiths Deputy Managing Director, Savills
Vietnam Ltd; and Mr. Ashish
Kanchan - Executive Director, TNS
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For registration, email Ms. Chung
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n THROUGH AUGUST 31
(FRIDAY): An exhibition entitled
“Encyclopedia Rebel” is being held
at L’Espace, 24 Trang Tien Street,
Hanoi on the publication of the book
in Vietnamese. Entrance is free.