opinion
Agent Orange: Children Suffer its Brutal Legacy
W
hen I served as an Army
medic in Vietnam, I
often saw a 19-year-old
solider whose job was to spray an
herbicide called Agent Orange on
anything green inside my base.
The same was true around the
perimeter, to deny cover to any
enemy intruders and to ensure a
clear line of fire in case of enemy
attack.
As I visited numerous American
military bases in Vietnam during
the war, they all looked like moon-
scapes. They were stripped of
grass and foliage by the same
v ieTnam v eTS
Ricky Weidman
But what about the Vietnamese
who were also exposed? And what
about the leftover “hot spots” of
dioxin that still exist there and
continue to harm people to this
very day?
The U.S. military shipped,
stored, and sprayed millions of
gallons of Agent Orange/dioxin
over a quarter of the former South
Vietnam, both for crop destruction
and
to
deny cover
to
the
enemy. In
this coun-
try
we
know from
our own
experiences with dioxin at Love
Canal and Times Beach that these
toxic hot spots can cause death
and disease to those who come in
contact with the chemical. The
diseases range from spina bifida to
Parkinson’s and certain forms of
cancer.
However, the political battle still
rages in Washington. VA Secretary
Shinseki has classified three addi-
The diseases range from spina
bifida to Parkinson’s and
certain forms of cancer
chemical for the same reasons.
Now, more than 40 years after
the war, we know that Agent
Orange contained dioxin, which is
among the world’s most lethal tox-
ins. American veterans of Vietnam
fought a long, hard postwar strug-
gle to get our Veterans
Administration to compensate
troops for a dozen diseases associ-
ated with Agent Orange/dioxin.
tional diseases as associated with
Agent Orange/dioxin, thereby
making veterans with those condi-
tions eligible for compensation. In
addition, women who served in
Vietnam can receive compensa-
tion if their children are disabled
with any of 14 birth anomalies.
That’s
because
Agent
Orange/dioxin can cause DNA
damage for generations.
The struggle is far from over. We
have reason to believe that many
additional adverse medical condi-
tions in Vietnam veterans of both
sexes also are caused by these
exposures, including possible
genetic problems in grandchildren
and great-grandchildren.
Meanwhile, in Vietnam, Agent
Orange/dioxin damage also
lingers. While we have made some
progress for Americans harmed by
these exposures, our friends in
Vietnam have a long way to go to
match our modest gains. The
Vietnamese Red Cross estimates
that 3 million people, including
more than 150,000 of today’s chil-
dren, are disabled because of the
chemical. Former airbases like Da
Nang contain dangerous toxic hot
spots where Agent Orange was
stored and handled and spilled into
the ground. Dioxin is hard to break
up in the soil and it lasts in human
body tissue for years.
Unlike the United States govern-
ment, the Vietnamese recognized
that Agent Orange/dioxin might
assistance to the Vietnamese dis-
abled population, including those
second- and third-generation chil-
dren affected by the chemical.
It seems to me that $30 million a
Now, more than 40 years after the
war, we know that Agent Orange
contained dioxin, which is among the
world’s most lethal toxins
cause chromosomal damage in the
second and third generations of
original victims. My own experi-
ence is that families of American
veterans also suffer. But the VA
recognizes no health conse-
quences from Agent Orange/diox-
in in disabled daughters and sons
of male veterans who served in
Vietnam.
It’s time to put this legacy of the
war in Vietnam to rest once and
for all. A blue-ribbon commission
of prominent Americans and
Vietnamese has called for a 10-
year, $300 million cleanup of
Agent Orange/dioxin in Vietnam.
The resources would eliminate the
hot spots, restore damaged ecosys-
tems and provide humanitarian
year for 10 years, from govern-
ment, foundation and private
sources, is a small price to pay to
help remedy the damage caused.
This is a humanitarian concern
we can do something about.
Recent progress in methods of
treating contaminated soils and
helping Vietnam’s disabled popu-
lation shows that America is at its
best when it steps up to heal past
wounds.
If we make progress on nothing
else regarding the ravages of
Agent Orange and other toxic sub-
stances used in Vietnam, we must
properly care for our future gener-
ations — on both sides of the
Pacific.
‘Play Ball!’ — Curt Flood, Marvin Miller and Baseball Today
W
ith the beginning of the
baseball season I am
always drawn back to
the memory of African American
St. Louis Cardinals player Curt
Flood. Flood defied the baseball
ruling establishment and led a
court challenge to the “reserve
clause,” a mechanism that held
most players in perpetual bondage
to their teams. Though Flood lost
the lawsuit at the Supreme Court,
with the support of the Major
League
Baseball
Players
Association he set in motion the
steps that would eventually result
in the end of the reserve clause
and the creation, of “free agency.”
Having led such an important
attack on an unjust system, what
remains amazing is that he has
been all but forgotten by most
T ranS a friCa
court case in order to crack the
wall of the reserve clause.
As I have been saying every year
around this time, “…so, when will
Curt Flood and Marvin Miller go
into the Baseball Hall of Fame for
their contributions to baseball?”
Unless the fans raise a ruckus, nei-
ther of these men, nor their union,
will ever receive the recognition to
which they are entitled.
Bill Fletcher, Jr. is a Senior
Scholar with the institute for
Policy Studies.
Bill
Fletcher Jr.
Flood his due and instead players
are allowed to think that the fan-
tastic salaries that they are able to
earn are the result of their athletic
prowess rather than a struggle led
by one outstanding centerfielder
and a union called the Major
League
Baseball
Players
Association (led at the time by
Marvin
Miller).
Forgetting Flood means forgetting
Unless the fans raise a ruckus, neither
of these men, nor their union, will
ever receive the recognition to
which they are entitled
contemporary sports enthusiasts
and even athletes. At his funeral,
in 1997, contemporary players
were absent, according to Brad
Snyder, author of the must-read A
Well-Paid Slave which details
Flood’s struggle against the
reserve clause and the system.
Today’s Major League baseball
players seem to have little knowl-
edge of Flood’s contributions, a
problem that I would lay at the
doorstep
of
the
Player’s
Association for not having a new
member education program that
highlights the significance of this
struggle for today’s baseball play-
er.
Yet, it is not just baseball. None
of the major sports has given
lenge the system. Flood’s failure
in court ultimately led to his leav-
ing his great love, baseball. Yet
only a few years later the Player’s
Association was able to utilize the
terrible publicity that the owners
received in the midst of the Flood
that the owners of Major League
baseball were never generous
individuals looking out for the
well-being of the players. For the
most part, they were shrewd and
greedy businesspeople who were
and are looking for the big dollar.
The reserve clause, like any form
of indentured servitude, provided
the owners with the power to hold
onto their best players and elimi-
nate the chance that the player
could get a better deal with a sep-
arate team. The result? Simply
that the owners, for years, kept
making more and more and the
players were stuck. This changed
when Flood and the Player’s
Association were both prepared to
take an immense risk and chal-
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april 13, 2011 The Portland Skanner Page 5