[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 125 (Thursday, September 16, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7168-S7170]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         LEGACY OF AGENT ORANGE

  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, during the Vietnam war more than 20 
million gallons of herbicide known as Agent Orange, much of it 
containing the highly toxic chemical dioxin, were stored, mixed, 
handled, and sprayed by U.S. airplanes over millions of acres of forest 
and farmland in Vietnam. Since then, dioxin has been linked by the U.S. 
Institutes of Medicine to various cancers and other debilitating 
diseases, as well as birth defects. The International Agency for 
Research on Cancer and the National Institute of Environmental Health 
Sciences classify it as a human carcinogen.
  Millions of Vietnamese citizens and U.S. military personnel were 
exposed,

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in one way or another, to Agent Orange, and its effects have been a 
subject of controversy for more than three decades. Today, the U.S. 
Veterans Administration recognizes 12 diseases and 1 birth defect 
related to herbicide exposure and recently added 3 more diseases as 
eligible for compensation from the Federal Government.
  Thanks to the efforts of U.S. veterans who suffered from the effects 
of dioxin, their needs have been recognized and are finally being 
addressed. But in Vietnam, where the government lacks the resources to 
either clean up the residual dioxin contamination or to adequately 
assist those who have suffered health problems, the legacy of Agent 
Orange remains a difficult and emotional subject for U.S.-Vietnamese 
relations.
  On the one hand, the Government of Vietnam for years blamed Agent 
Orange for seemingly any case of birth defect in the country, no matter 
how farfetched. On the other hand, the U.S. Government consistently 
denied causation between Agent Orange and birth defects in Vietnam and 
refused to accept any responsibility for the alleged harm. For years, 
the issue remained a contentious one for our countries.
  Then about a decade ago, thanks to an initiative funded by the Ford 
Foundation and with the participation of the U.S. Environmental 
Protection Agency, research was done that went a long way toward 
dispelling the myths about the extent of contamination, as well as 
identifying where the most serious threats remain. Some 28 ``hot 
spots'' of varying degrees of dioxin contamination were located where 
Agent Orange had been stored or handled, often resulting in extensive 
spills and leakage into the soil or groundwater, from where it moved up 
the food chain. The sites with the worst contamination are the Da Nang, 
Bien Hoa, and Phu Cat airports. For example, in the area of the Da Nang 
Airport, dioxin levels in soil, sediment, and fish were documented as 
300 to 400 times higher than what is considered safe. And the 
contamination is passed genetically from one generation to the next.
  In 2006, the same year that a Joint Advisory Committee of U.S. and 
Vietnamese Government agencies was established to discuss ways to 
address this problem, the Department of State and Foreign Operations 
Subcommittee, which I chair, provided $3 million for ``environmental 
remediation of dioxin-contaminated sites and related health activities 
in Vietnam'' for fiscal year 2007. An additional $3 million was 
provided for fiscal year 2009 and the same amount again for fiscal year 
2010. The 2010 Supplemental Appropriations Act includes $12 million for 
these purposes, and S. 3676, the Senate version of the fiscal year 2011 
Department of State and Foreign Operations bill, which was reported by 
the Appropriations Committee on July 29, 2010, includes another $15 
million. Chairman Faleomavaega of the House Subcommittee on Asia, the 
Pacific, and the Global Environment has held two hearings on the issue, 
and in July, Senators Harkin and Sanders traveled to Vietnam and 
visited the Da Nang site.
  The Government of Vietnam also provides tens of millions of dollars 
for small monthly payments to persons with disabilities believed to 
have been caused by Agent Orange, as well as some funds for dioxin 
cleanup. The Ford Foundation has provided $14 million for activities in 
Vietnam related to Agent Orange. These include dioxin containment at 
the Da Nang Airport, services and opportunities for people with 
disabilities in eight particularly affected provinces, and to support 
the work of the U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin, a 
binational committee of scientists, educators, and policy analysts. 
Other U.S. philanthropic organizations, including the Gates Foundation 
and Atlantic Philanthropies, as well as several governments and United 
Nations agencies, have also contributed, while U.S. nongovernmental 
organizations have implemented programs to deliver services to affected 
people. American companies have also been exploring greater business 
partnerships with Vietnam and contributing to education and other 
efforts. The Dialogue Group's Plan of Action calls for a 10-year effort 
that would combine continuing U.S. and Vietnamese Government support 
with support from nonprofits and corporations that have business 
relationships in Vietnam. These would all be helpful steps.
  My own interest in addressing the legacy of Agent Orange evolved from 
the use of the Leahy War Victims Fund in Vietnam to assist persons with 
disabilities, primarily victims of landmines and other unexploded 
ordnance left over from the war, and my efforts to address the problem 
of civilian casualties and to assist innocent victims of the military 
operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
  Since 1988, through the U.S. Agency for International Development and 
implementing partners, including the Vietnam Veterans of America 
Foundation and Vietnam Assistance for the Handicapped, the U.S. 
Government has provided tens of millions of dollars through the Leahy 
fund for medical, rehabilitation and vocational assistance, training, 
and equipment. However, no one knows how many of the beneficiaries of 
these programs may have been disabled as a result of exposure to Agent 
Orange, and large areas of the country still lack services for people 
with disabilities.
  In 2007, it was Bobby Muller, the former president of Vietnam 
Veterans of America Foundation, who had been instrumental, indeed 
indispensible, in promoting postwar reconciliation and the eventual 
normalization of relations with Vietnam, who suggested to me that the 
U.S. Government needed to do something about Agent Orange. Vietnam and 
the United States were making progress on so many fronts, from locating 
the remains of MIAs to cooperation on HIV/AIDS and expanding tourism 
and trade, that it made no sense for the issue of dioxin contamination 
to remain a sore point. I agreed that we should try to turn this 
contentious issue into one on which both countries could work together.
  Since then, while it has taken far longer than I would have liked to 
develop a plan for utilizing the funds, the administration is now at 
the point of identifying the most cost-effective remediation technique 
for Da Nang, and, as I have noted, we are fortunate that in the 
meantime other donors have joined this effort.
  We also need to look forward. In Senate Report 111-237 accompanying 
S. 3676, the Appropriations Committee directs USAID, in consultation 
with the Department of State, the Government of Vietnam, and other 
interested parties, to develop a multiyear plan for Agent Orange 
activities in Vietnam. This plan, which should reflect input from 
interested parties with a history of working on this issue such as the 
Ford Foundation and the U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/
Dioxin, should identify the key activities for the environmental 
remediation and health/disability components of this effort, indicate 
how U.S. funding will be coordinated with and complimentary to the 
contributions of other donors and how nongovernmental organizations, 
including nonprofits and businesses, can play constructive roles. It 
should set clear goals, benchmarks for measuring progress, and 
estimated costs associated with these activities. In doing so, we will 
not only chart our way forward, we will demonstrate to the Government 
of Vietnam and its people that we intend to continue to play a central 
role in this effort.
  To that end, I want to emphasize the importance of the health 
component. While the soil and sediment remediation is critical and has 
received the most attention, it would be hard to overstate the 
importance the Vietnamese give to addressing the needs of people who 
have been harmed. While it may not be possible to definitively diagnose 
Agent Orange as the cause of a person's disability, the plan should 
include surveys or other steps to locate people who suffer from 
disabilities that may have been caused by dioxin, so they can be 
helped. An expanded involvement by nonprofit organizations, businesses, 
and philanthropies remains key to this humanitarian effort, and there 
is no longer any reason for hesitancy on the part of U.S. companies in 
Vietnam in supporting such work.
  After a tragic war that left deep scars in both Vietnam and the 
United States, we have become partners on a wide range of issues. We 
still have our differences, particularly concerning human rights, but 
we want to make progress in whatever ways we can. The legacy of Agent 
Orange, for years an issue that divided us, is now one that is bringing 
us together.

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