US Is Finally Cleaning Up Agent Orange In Vietnam 277
derekmead writes "It only took 40 years. And yes, Washington still disputes Hanoi's claim that up to 4 million Vietnamese suffered contact with the defoliant, which was dumped en masse in a U.S. air campaign to scorch away the dense jungle cover under which guerilla fighters hid. But the AP reports that the U.S. is finally set to start cleaning up the mess. The numbers are staggering: Between 1962 and 1971, the U.S. military sprayed some 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and a galaxy of other herbicides on nearly a quarter of former South Vietnam. The defoliant ate through about 5 millions acres – a tract comparable in size to Massachusetts – of forest. An additional half-million acres of crops were decimated."
Re:If I was cynical... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:What a waste of tax payer money! (Score:3, Interesting)
So you plan to build the next mars rover?
Not by myself, no. But if even people want one built then they should use their own money to built one. If not enough people want to build one, then one will not get built.
How about just the road to get to the place where the next mars rover will be built? Let us give private citizens and companies the power to do all of that and see how far they want to go spending their money.
People can spend their money on what ever they like. They should not have it forcibly removed from them so it can be spent on something that *someone else* likes.
Quit thinking like a child and realize that there is a reason you are taxed, and its a good one.
The end is not the important part here, the means is. And the end does not justify the means. Compuslory wealth redistribution is nothing short of corrupt.
Re:Five million acres (Score:5, Interesting)
The fact that they're de-toxing the soil 40 years later tells me there's a difference. Simple slash-and-burn at least allows regrowth if the farmers go away.
Nasty stuff that Agent orange? (Score:3, Interesting)
I was in Nam towards the end ('73) while in the Army, I was stationed at an abandoned
Air Force hospital (flush toilets, hot water, Hooch's) - a Mash unit at Tuy Hoa.
Apparently different companies "downsized" together into one. A conex that had
been some groups bagage had been sitting alone outside of our hospital since I'd been there.
Bored I poked through it one day. It was filled with stuff I couldn't explain then nor now. A lot
of atropine self injectors (they make lousy darts), cases of them and new rubber suits.
Imagine Dracula's cape with a hood, I wanted one for myself. It was made
entirely out of a thick soft rubber, with it and other items I found, one could be
completely covered and safe from nerve gas (my first impression).
I haven't heard of anything thing that could justify such an outfit, except agent orange.
If it were used in it's dispersion, Agent orange was seen as some nasty stuff
by those who used to own that conex.
Re:That's nice (Score:5, Interesting)
My father served in Vietnam as a truck driver. The foliage on the sides of the roads were a main target for the agent orange deployments, and the truck drivers likely received a proportionally higher dose due to their continuing contact with the agent.
He major inflammation of the heart 6 months after returning from Vietnam, and a series of heart attacks from Ischemic heart disease over the next few decades. He had a multitude of other illnesses that are typically associated with exposure.
I was born with several birth defects. They are mostly manageable with medicine, but still, it sucked being 18 and having to take beta-blockers so my heart wouldn't tear itself to pieces.
My Father's illnesses are under presumed status, meaning that all he had to demonstrate in order to receive benefits was that he was in Vietnam during the time period agent orange was deployed, and that he had a disease recognized to be caused by exposure. This recognition did not happen until a few years ago. He had spent the last 15 years in near poverty as he could no longer work due to the advanced heart disease, which required a quadruple bipass.
The causality for my health issues is less defined, and I'm basically on my own for the treatment.
Growing up dealing with this, and watching my Dad fight PTS and his illnesses made me very suspicious of the government at a young age. Sadly, all that insight has seemed to gain me is a disgust for the blind and ignorant patriotism most people I meet seem to display.
Re:If I was cynical... (Score:5, Interesting)
They indeed do ... even if you were being funny.
With 6 million annual visitors and a 20+% growth rate, it currently is ahead of places like Argentina, Brazil, India, Japan and Australia ... while rapidly closing in on Hawaii, Portugal, South Africa and Egypt.
Also for the US audience - already twice the tourism level of Cancun - so don't doubt the big money that is about to pour into that place.
Vietnam is clearly heading to replace Thailand for many people.
Re:No, you are not (Score:5, Interesting)
...most people of Vietnam just do not trust Uncle Sam
That is the opposite of the impression I got when I travelled Vietnam for three weeks earlier this year. "We love Hillary and want to chop off the heads of the Chinese" to quote one guy I talked to. I have no impression that anyone holds any grudges because of the Vietnam war atleast in the younger population. China is seen as a big threat and USA / the west as the good guys.
Re:If I was cynical... (Score:1, Interesting)
Re:The atrocities (Score:5, Interesting)
"No, it was not "very common"."
Not according to journals from my Grandfather, Lt. Col USMC, who served it all from WWII up to Korea/Vietnam.
That shit happened DAILY.
You're starting to sound pretty ignorant of history. THAT is foolish.