May 30 - Traditional Memorial Day

MEMORIAL DAY
Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.
The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C.
In 1966, Congress and President Lyndon Johnson declared Waterloo, N.Y., the “birthplace” of Memorial Day. 
READ MORE

Open Letter from Texaco's Victims to Chevron's Shareholders

http://chevrontoxico.com/news-and-multimedia/2014/0528-open-letter-from-texacos-victims-to-chevrons-shareholders
We are those who Chevron is constantly trying to silence. We come to you, the shareholders, looking for the most basic empathy and respect we deserve as human beings. We ask but a minute of your time to read this brief letter in its totality.
You have been told – and will be told again and again – that the trial in Ecuador is but a fraud. However, no one has been able to deny the damage oil drilling has done to our land and lives. A great many of us are sick; others have already passed away. This tragedy came to happen because Texaco chose to design and construct installations with sub-par (or outright obsolete) technology: instead of using tanks, they drilled huge, unlined open-air pits directly in the ground, and used them to contain all the sludge and toxic water. This waste was then poured directly into the rivers of our Rainforest. Even though the technology was readily available, the designers and operators at Texaco did not re-inject A SINGLE DROP OF TOXIC WATER back into the ground, as they should've done. When they left they simply buried their pollution, where it remains still, poisoning us.

That's an undeniable fact.
Chevron's management constantly speaks about a (nonexistent) fraud. What they haven´t told you, is that the judicial decision upon which they base their fraud allegations is anchored on the testimony of an Ecuadorian judge that was separated from the judiciary under very suspicious circumstances. You're probably also unaware of the fact that we were denied of basic constitutional rights, such as being heard by a jury of our peers. The vast majority of us have never set foot in the United States, and probably never will – however, we've already been labeled as criminals that tried to "extort" money out of an American corporation. We, the real victims in this matter, do not have the necessity of bribing any judge: the evidence on record is clear, eloquent and powerful, and the harm cannot be hidden. Also, suggesting that humble residents of the Amazon have funds to orchestrate such a fraud is preposterous.
The truth is, we originally filed suit in New York in 1993, and it was Texaco's lawyers who asked for the company to be tried in Ecuador. Our only alternative was to re-file the legal action in our country's courts, and after 20 years of bitter battle, we emerged victorious. But now, our legitimate demands for justice are seen as a fraud in the eyes of a New York judge: a scheme supposedly planned by American lawyers. This judge determined that we, the victims, don't exist (by calling us "the so-called plaintiffs") and called for the decisions from our domestic tribunals to be ignored worldwide.

READ MORE: http://chevrontoxico.com/news-and-multimedia/2014/0528-open-letter-from-texacos-victims-to-chevrons-shareholders

Monsanto: the Toxic Face of Globalization

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/26/monsanto-the-toxic-face-of-globalization/ 
To the rhythms of drums and chants, concerned people took to the streets across 436 cities in 52 countries yesterday. The message was clear: smash Monsanto. With thousands marching from coast to coast, Canada to Argentina, and around the world, the day of protest has emerged as one of the largest global events—and it has only been around for two years. However, more than small hopes for a mandatory labeling of genetically modified products, smashing Monsanto entails a larger transformation of the modern relationship between people and food.

It is not only GM products, but the continuing economy of globalization, that Monsanto represents. Thanks to major seed companies and agricultural conglomerates like Monsanto and Cargill, the very definition of farmer has changed throughout the world—from a person or group of people in a given community who specialized in producing food to a corporate, land-owning entity comprised more of machines, technological assemblages, and inputs than of people who work the land. Thus, the target of protest is not only GMs, although GMs are a central aspect, but also the supply chain of multinational corporations that transforms food into a commodity that many throughout the world cannot afford.
In the context of today’s historical epoch—the Global Land Grab, in which farmland is being grabbed by multinational corporations from vulnerable populations like small farmers, campesin@s, and Indigenous peoples throughout the world—the March Against Monsanto has taken on a particularly sharp edge. In Ethiopia, where Monsanto has taken up shop through the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, reports have emerged of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people flooding the streets of the capital city, Addis Ababa, to demonstrate against land grabbing.
Monsanto has also ingrained itself in Mali since the US-backed coup of 2012, in spite of renewed fighting in the North that only yesterday claimed the lives of 50 soldiers. Malian cotton farmers, who have resisted Monsanto’s genetically modified Bt Cotton seeds since 2004, are being brushed to the side. The process of side-stepping traditional agriculture moved forward in 2010 through the IMF-mandated privatization of La Compagnie malienne pour le développement du textile against the organized opposition of farmers who petitioned through the People’s Forum. A year after the coup, the USDA announced that Malian farmers are “ready to adopt Bt Cotton,” although Mali’s “biosafety law needs to be revised and made functional.” The biosafety law is to be removed, because it restricts the ability of researchers to run field tests.
READ MORE: http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/05/26/monsanto-the-toxic-face-of-globalization/

Five Damning Facts About the Agent Orange Cover-up

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1938048
During the Vietnam War, the government hid the truth about Agent Orange from the world. The U.S. assumed that most of the world would be horrified by the use of Agent Orange and other compounds. So it did its best to conceal the program's existence.
The dangerous chemicals were sent overseas without any warning labels. "American servicemen were told that these herbicides were completely harmless, so no one took any precautions when handling them," says Sills. "Essentially, Americans and Vietnamese were unnecessarily exposed to poison so the U.S. could be protected from bad publicity."  
When veterans became sick, the VA ignored their problems. After Vietnam vets came home, the VA systematically covered up the truth about military herbicides. Toxic War shows how the VA dodged evidence and manipulated facts to make it appear that these herbicides were harmless.
The government sponsored deliberately bad science to cover up the truth. Almost all of the studies conducted on veterans who'd potentially been exposed to herbicides were terribly done and are now largely discredited.
"If government scientists had merely done a bad job, then their results would have been all over the place," notes Sills. "But all those wrong findings pointed in just one direction—that Vietnam vets weren't harmed by these chemicals. This couldn't have been a coincidence."
The government consistently tried to prevent "Agent Orange" veterans from getting the help they've needed. "Whenever the agency lost a round, it would fight the same battle again and again, and keep losing over and over," says Sills. "It didn't give up until Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki finally agreed to grant benefits to anyone who suffered from diseases that could have been caused by herbicide exposure, according to the best available science."  
Sadly, the government's unwillingness to accept responsibility wasn't an aberration. It has also tried to minimize the harm caused by toxins during the wars in the Middle East.
"There is a terrible disconnect between the inevitable demand to support our troops in wartime and how we treat those same troops after they come home," says Sills. "It is extremely unfortunate that political expedience has consistently trumped the proper care of our veterans. It isn't just that their health problems have been ignored. The government has actively covered up the truth about what really happened to our troops."

Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1938048#ixzz331YqVOzp

Memorial Day 2014

Antibacterial Soap’s Deadly Secret

A comment on the following report from our friend and Agent Orange/Dioxin authority, George Claxton

           

Anti bacterial soap

A lot of antibacterial soap contains HEXACHLOROPHENE (HCP),  HCP contains 2,3,7,8-TCDD or dioxin.  It is one of the most dangerous poisons on the face of the Earth.  

To  my knowledge, about 50 years ago a large number of children were poisoned in France by HCP contaminated food. I believe they all DIED.  HCP is still on the market. 

Do you think there is a possibility that a greedy corporation might be keeping HCP on the market?

Faithfully submitted

________________________________________________________________________

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/21/antibacterial-soap-s-deadly-secret.html

Antibacterial soap is supposed to help you stay clean and healthy, right? Turns out, it’s hiding a dangerous ingredient.

Antibacterial soap is supposed to help you stay clean and healthy, right? Turns out, it’s hiding a dangerous ingredient.

Wildlife and humans won a small victory yesterday, at least in Minnesota. The state, which boasts one of the leading state departments of health in the country, decided to ban the antimicrobial chemical, triclosan, from soaps and other products because of concerns regarding its deleterious impact on the environment, animals, and ultimately, human health.
Triclosan has been earning a progressively worse rap in recent years after arriving on the scene a few decades ago as the great antiseptic hope. It does kill bacteria and fungi and other microbes efficiently, but whether the extra killing over soap and water means anything to anyone is uncertain at best. Evidence does support its beneficial role over fluoride alone in toothpaste as a way to avoid cavities and gum diseases, but that’s it.
The problem is that its side effects are many and quite varied.  Minnesota cited the risk of “hormone disruption” from triclosan as the rationale for its action. The hormone disruptor, also called an endocrine disruptor, is a slightly new-age concept coined by environmentalists and embraced now by most scientists. Chemicals—and there are many—that are viewed as capable of perturbing several endocrine systems, including the thyroid, the adrenals, the ovaries, and the testicles, in humans and other animals, are considered “hormone disruptors.” A list of the 12 most horrible was recently released. It included some veteran bad guys such as dioxin and lead.
READ MORE: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/21/antibacterial-soap-s-deadly-secret.html

Iraq, Afghan Veterans: Open Air Burn Pits Are New ‘Agent Orange’

Open Burn Pits - The New Agent Orange
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Hundreds of veterans coming back from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are falling ill and many are dying of what’s being called the new “Agent Orange”: open air burn pits.

There’s no proven cause but vets and their families say they know why.
Lieutenant Colonel Gwen Chiaramonte is proud to have served her country. At Balad Air Force Base in Iraq she was a combat stress therapist, familiar with exposure to danger off base. “You worry but you think you just have to live,” she said.
Now she believes there was danger from within too: An open air pit where the base’s garbage was burned. “They they just threw everything in. Vehicles, tires, plastic bottles, trash, medical waste, dead animals. Then they would pour jet fuel on it and just light it,” she said.
Chiaramonte says the burn pit spewed columns of ashy smoke that often blew right into her nearby housing unit. “It would smell like it would be on fire,” she said.
She started getting constant nose bleeds. Then when she got home, the really bad news: A rare form of aggressive ovarian cancer.
Hundreds of former and current service members are filing claims with the Department of Veterans affairs, blaming harmful emissions from the burn pits for causing mysterious lung diseases, and cancers.
READ MORE: Open Burn Pits - The New Agent Orange

Air Force says no Agent Orange used on base

http://www.rantoulpress.com/news/environment/2014-05-20/air-force-says-no-agent-orange-used-base.html
RANTOUL — The project manager for a company in charge of cleanup efforts at the former Chanute Air Force Base (Illinois) said environmental concerns about Agent Orange and other agents are unfounded.

One by one, Howard Sparrow, project manager for CB&I Inc., Greenville, S.C., addressed areas of concern about public drinking water supply, private wells, Agent Orange and low levels of dioxins.
Water quality issue. Speaking at last Thursday’s Chanute Restoration Advisory Board meeting, Sparrow addressed a comment that indicated in 2008, the federal government warned the village of Rantoul and Chanute Air Force Base that they should notify all children, elderly and infants with health problems that the water had contaminants and that they should not drink the water.
“The Air Force’s response to that is that is not a true statement,” Sparrow said. “The village of Rantoul drinking water supply is perfectly safe for the public to drink.”
Sparrow said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) in 2008 reviewed available information for the village, which now operates five of the former Chanute wells and found no contaminants “detected at levels of concern.”
The only notable item found as a result of testing was sodium, a naturally occurring mineral that might be a concern for people with high blood pressure.
Pete Passarelli, village of Rantoul assistant public works director, said at the November RAB meeting that the community’s water supply is “rigorously tested monthly through a certified lab, and it meets all of the U.S. EPA-required levels.”
READ MORE: http://www.rantoulpress.com/news/environment/2014-05-20/air-force-says-no-agent-orange-used-base.html

Are you dealing with the effects of Agent Orange?

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/05/agent_orange.html
Between 1962 and 1975, the U.S. deployed millions of tons of Agent Orange in Vietnam.
The powerful herbicide was used to defoliate forests, a hiding place for the Viet Cong, as well as a food source.
In the aftermath of the war, millions of veterans faced profound and debilitating medical complications as a result of exposure with the toxic substance. And even though in 1991 the government established broad and full compensation for veterans who had "boots on the ground," millions of others have continued to struggle to secure compensation for their medical needs as a result of Agent Orange.
PennLive is looking for veterans who may have been exposed to Agent Orange, whether or not they deal with health complications as a result. We are also looking for relatives of men and women who may were exposed to the defoliant.
If your father or grandfather - or even uncle or cousin or good friend - was a veteran who was exposed to the toxin, we would love to hear your story.
Share your story by filling out the form, emailing us at submissions@pennlive.com or writing in the comments section below.
We will keep your story confidential unless you tell us you want to share it with others.
GO TO: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2014/05/agent_orange.html

Group asks for grant to measure dioxin in Oroville

http://www.newsreview.com/chico/testing-grant/content?oid=13505034

A group called the Oroville Dioxin Education Committee (ODEC) has applied for a grant to do further testing for the cancer-causing pollutant dioxin. Testing over the years has revealed dioxin in chicken eggs and soil in the area around the Highway 70 Industrial Park.
The dioxin was generated by a couple of sources, the Koppers wood-treatment plant, which caught on fire in the late 1980s, spewing dioxin-laden smoke in a region of houses and farms south of the plant. More recently, the toxins came from the emissions from the Pacific Oroville Power Inc. cogeneration plant, which burned “urban waste” to create electricity. That plant closed two years ago.
The grant, if approved, would be administered by the city with funding from the Department of Water Resources and the State Water Contractors.
According to ODEC, the Butte County Public Health, Environmental Health Division has issued a report called “Dioxin in Oroville Summary and Recommendations.” The office can be reached at 538-7281.

The Monsanto Gang Rides

Pledge to boycott the brands that are fighting GMO labels!

Posted By: Organic Consumers Association (campaign leader)

The Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA)—Monsanto's Evil Twin—is pulling out all the stops to keep you in the dark about what's in your food.

The GMA plans to sue Vermont to overturn the state's new genetically engineered food labeling law, H.112. And it's pushing a bill in Congress that would take away states' rights to enact a GMO labeling laws, while legalizing the practice of labeling GMO foods "natural."

Monsanto, Dow, Dupont, Kellogg's, General Mills, Coca-Cola. These are just a few of the 300-plus members of the GMA. Combined, they own more than 6,000 brand name products, including foods, beverages, seeds, home and garden supplies, pet food, herbicides and pesticides.

You probably don't buy most of those products. But you may not be aware that many of your favorite organic and natural brands, like Honest Tea, Muir Glen, Odwalla, Kashi, Earthgrains, Santa Cruz and others, are owned by corporations that do belong to the GMA. Those corporations spent about $68 million to defeat GMO ballot initiatives in California (Prop 37) and Washington State (I-522). And they continue to fight against your right to know by supporting the GMA's effort to overturn states' rights to pass GMO labeling laws.

Who are the Traitor Brands? Take the pledge, and find out!

PLEDGE

Vietnam War Was Monsanto’s First Herbicidal Operation

Warning: The following video contains some graphic images and may be considered disturbing to some viewers.
The Vietnam War was the Monsanto Company’s first herbicidal operation. Monsanto and Dow Chemical were the two companies that manufactured Agent Orange, the deadly dioxin based herbicide.  The March Against Monsanto (MAM) is scheduled to host global protests at more than 100 sites on May 24. MAM is very vocal about moving beyond a genetically modified organism (GMO ) labeling centered discourse when it comes to exposing Monsanto’s negative impact on the world.

The protest network sponsors projects like Agent Orange Awareness (AOA). Founder of the AOA Kelly L. Derricks comments, “If we fail to realize that March Against Monsanto is not about GMOs alone, then we have already lost the battle.”
Organizers want to inform the public that Monsanto’s devastation stretches across the board. The media often simplifies protesters’ demands against Monsanto’s domination of food resources by not covering Monsanto’s history as a major manufacturer of Agent Orange.
Even though Monsanto was not the only Agent Orange producer, MAM confirms that Monsanto manufactured the chemical at 1,000 times its original potency making them the most deadly contributor to the herbicidal weapons used in the Vietnam War. Agent Orange was used in Operation Ranch Hand which began Monsanto’s role in destroying the global environment and harming the health of millions.
The Organic Consumers Association gives the history of how the toxic chemical was used in the Vietnam War. Approximately 72 million liters of herbicides, a majority Agent Orange, were sprayed by the United States military from 1962 to 1970. More than a million Vietnamese citizens and over 100,000 allied troops came into contact with the toxin. Since then, Monsanto has falsified several studies about the toxic effects of Agent Orange.
Studies that show Agent Orange’s toxic effects exist, but this research has done little to implicate Monsanto’s role in poisoning humans. Studies in the 1970s found that Agent Orange exposure caused, “a very significant, multi-system illness affecting all parts of the nervous system, and causing fatigue and muscle aches.” Groups like AOA and MAM are working to draw attention to the countless studies and life experiences that prove the damaging effects of Agent Orange.

READ MORE: http://guardianlv.com/2014/05/vietnam-war-was-monsantos-first-herbicidal-operation-video/

Panel to study at agent orange residue exposure

http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/oregon/panel-to-study-at-agent-orange-residue-exposure/article_aa600a32-dc88-11e3-9838-001a4bcf887a.html

The Veterans Affairs Department has long resisted disability claims from service members who said chemical residue left in Vietnam War-era planes that were used to spray defoliants over Southeast Asia caused them severe illnesses, including cancer.
This summer, a panel of independent scientists will try to determine whether those veterans could have been exposed to the toxins in defoliants, including Agent Orange, at a level that would be dangerous to their health.

If the panel, which hosted the first of a series of closed meetings and public hearings Thursday, finds a link, the service members could be eligible for tax-free disability compensation up to several thousand dollars a month.

That’s something Wes Carter, a retired Air Force major, believes is long overdue.

“We’ve got some sick folks that are not allowed to go into the VA,” said Carter, a former Oregon resident leading the crusade and who believes his prostate cancer and other disorders are due to his exposure to dioxin, a contaminant found in Agent Orange.

Carter served on C-123s in the Air Force Reserves as a medic from 1974 to 1980. The planes were used to spray millions of gallons of defoliants to destroy crops and eliminate jungle cover used by the North Vietnamese Army and the Vietcong.

Harmful to humans

The military stopped the spraying by early 1971 over concerns that some defoliants contained compounds harmful to humans. The fleet returned stateside, but Air Force Reserve units continued to fly them on cargo and medevac missions until the early 1980s.

Over the years veterans who flew in those planes have been getting sick, and like many Vietnam veterans, they’re blaming the defoliants.

Carter said he found out they still had dried herbicide residue in them after he was diagnosed in 2011 with prostate cancer, one of nearly 20 illnesses VA deems service-connected among Vietnam veterans, due to possible herbicide exposure.

READ MORE: http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/oregon/panel-to-study-at-agent-orange-residue-exposure/article_aa600a32-dc88-11e3-9838-001a4bcf887a.html

from Dr. Wayne Dwernychuk

An inspiring short film … Viet Nam … Agent Orange:

https://vimeo.com/13632153

A presentation of the filmmaker:

http://www.the-purpose-project.org/documentary/

Dr. Wayne Dwernychuk is retired from Hatfield Consultants

Panel to study at Agent Orange residue exposure

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_25760779/panel-study-at-agent-orange-residue-exposure
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — The Veterans Affairs Department has long resisted disability claims from service members who said chemical residue left in Vietnam War-era planes that were used to spray defoliants over Southeast Asia caused them severe illnesses, including cancer.
This summer, a panel of independent scientists will try to determine whether those veterans could have been exposed to the toxins in defoliants, including Agent Orange, at a level that would be dangerous to their health.
If the panel, which hosts the first of a series of closed meetings and public hearings on May 15, finds a link, the service members could be eligible for tax-free disability compensation up to several thousand dollars a month.
That's something Wes Carter, a retired Air Force major, believes is long overdue.
"We've got some sick folks that are not allowed to go into the VA," said Carter, a former Oregon resident leading the crusade and who believes his prostate cancer and other disorders are due to his exposure to dioxin, a contaminant found in Agent Orange.
Carter served on C-123s in the Air Force Reserves as a medic from 1974 to 1980. The planes were used to spray millions of gallons of defoliants to destroy crops and eliminate jungle cover used by the North Vietnamese Army and the Vietcong.
The military stopped the spraying by early 1971 over concerns that some defoliants contained compounds harmful to humans. The fleet returned stateside, but Air Force Reserve units continued to fly them on cargo and medevac missions until the early 1980s.
READ MORE: http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_25760779/panel-study-at-agent-orange-residue-exposure

All “It” Was Supposed To Do Was Defoliate The Trees

http://eugenedailynews.com/2014/05/supposed-defoliate-trees/
by Tim Chuey
The “it” I am referring to is Agent Orange. 

It was used extensively in Vietnam and its consequences are devastating and far-reaching. The reason for my discussing Agent Orange is that a series of Town Hall Meetings was held last week in various locations in Western Oregon.  “The Faces of Agent Orange” is the title of the program. My wife’s sister Nancy Switzer was one of the speakers for the forum. She is one of the founders and former President of the Associates of Vietnam Veterans of America (AVVA) and came all the way from Rochester, New York to Oregon. AVVA defines itself as “a non-profit membership organization dedicated to advancing the full range of issues affecting Vietnam Veterans, their families, and their communities.” Nancy invited my wife Sue, our daughter Michelle, and me to come to Lebanon for the forum. I might add that I thought I knew quite a bit about Agent Orange, but this gathering showed me just how much in the dark most of us are when it comes to this subject. “The Faces of Agent Orange” town hall meetings are sponsored by the AVVA and the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA). This gathering was held at the River Center which is actually a church. Their pastor Lynn Koehn told me that one of the purposes of their church is to have their building available for the needs of the community such as this town hall meeting. The American Legion Color Guard started things off by presenting the colors. Everyone recited the Pledge of Allegiance and then the assembly that numbered about 250 were seated ready to get started.
READ MORE: http://eugenedailynews.com/2014/05/supposed-defoliate-trees/
Tim Chuey is a Member of the American Meteorological Society and the National Weather Association and has been Awarded Seals of Approval for television weathercasting from both organizations.

Vietnam vets push for research, treatment of Agent Orange illnesses

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/05/12/vietnam-vets-push-for-research-treatment-of-agent-orange-illnesses.html
CINCINNATI — Dave Maier didn’t believe he had tennis elbow.
The 71-year-old Vietnam War veteran had taken 16 aspirin a day for weeks — and then years — until his doctor found the true cause of Maier’s pain: soft-tissue sarcoma — a rare type of cancer that has been found in Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange.
That’s why Maier, of Bay Village near Cleveland, traveled to Cincinnati yesterday to attend a town-hall meeting hosted by the Vietnam Veterans of America. Held nationwide, the organization’s Faces of Agent Orange meetings are meant to garner support for a U.S. Senate bill that would pay for research into toxic chemicals’ effects on soldiers and their children.
Between 1962 and 1971, U.S. forces sprayed approximately 20 million gallons of dioxin-containing herbicides on more than 6 million acres in Vietnam, the organization says.
The chemicals — one of them known as Agent Orange — are expected to cause health problems for veterans and their children and grandchildren for at least five to seven generations.
More than 2.5 million Americans served in the war.
A few weeks after his diagnosis, doctors amputated Maier’s left arm to save his life. Now, he worries for his three children.
Two of them were born with abnormally large heads, he said, but don’t seem to suffer any serious health problems.
READ MORE: http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/local/2014/05/12/vietnam-vets-push-for-research-treatment-of-agent-orange-illnesses.html

Agent Orange’s Long Legacy, for Vietnam and Veterans

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/12/us/agent-oranges-long-legacy-for-vietnam-and-veterans.html

Britain was the first to use defoliants as a war tactic in Southeast Asia. That was in the early 1950s in Malaya, then a British colony, before it became the independent Malaysia. British planes sprayed Malayan jungles with chemicals to strip trees bare and deprive communist guerrillas of cover. They also destroyed crops that the insurgents relied on for sustenance. A decade later, in what was then South Vietnam, United States armed forces resorted to precisely the same methods on an enormous scale in their long struggle against Viet Cong and North Vietnamese fighters.

From 1962 to 1971, American C-123 transport planes sprayed roughly 20 million gallons of herbicides on an area of South Vietnam about the size of Massachusetts. Code-named Ranch Hand, this operation reached its peak from 1967 to 1969. (Some members of the Ranch Hand team adopted Smokey Bear of forest-fire awareness fame as a mascot. “Only you can prevent a forest” was their twist on Smokey’s slogan.) To the political and military strategists in Washington, using vegetation-killing chemicals was a legally sound and necessary way to save American and South Vietnamese lives. They cited the British precedent.

This week’s video documentary from Retro Report, a series that re-examines major stories from the past, returns us to Vietnam and to the chemical most commonly and most notoriously used there: Agent Orange. Named for the color of a stripe girdling the barrels in which it was shipped, it combined two herbicides, one of which turned out to be contaminated with a highly toxic strain of dioxin. No need for alarm, Washington officialdom and chemical company executives insisted at the time. Agent Orange did not harm humans, they said. As the 1960s wore on, those assurances increasingly rang hollow. Researchers found evidence of birth defects in lab animals. American scientists and others began to speak out against the spraying. Opposition to the herbicide campaign mounted, arm in arm with spreading protests against the war itself. In 1970, the Agent Orange spraying stopped. Other chemicals continued to be used until Jan. 7, 1971, when the entire herbicide program was scrapped after a final Ranch Hand run.

But Agent Orange’s legacy was only beginning. More than 40 years later, it still casts a long shadow.

READ MORE: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/12/us/agent-oranges-long-legacy-for-vietnam-and-veterans.html

Mark Your Calendar

May 17, 2014

Lynn, Massachusetts

10A-2P

AmVets Post 161

 535 Western Ave.

Lynn, MA

 Attn: Bruce Dobson

email: vva908publicaffairs@verizon.net

Cell: 617-519-8393

May 18^th, 2014

Bordentown, New Jersey

The Bordentown Township Senior/Community Center

New Jersey State Council Town Hall Meeting

3 Municipal Drive, Bordentown TWP NJ 08505

May 18, 2014 2:00 PM.-5:00 pm

Contact Mike Eckstein 201-803-2943

Email- ME1065@verizon.net

May 20, 2014

Cleveland, Tennesse

6PM - 9PM

Keith Street Ministries

4000 Keith St NW Cleveland, Tennessee

Contact: Barry Rice, President

Tennessee State Council 615-479-8619

barryrice.tsc@gmail.com   

May 24, 2014

Flushing, New York

10:00 am to 1:00 pm

JIB-IBEW Hall Electrical Industry Center

67-35 Parsons Boulevard

Flushing, New York

For more information, contact: jrowan@vva.org

June 21, 2014

Sierra Vista, Arizona

10 AM to 3 PM

VVA Chapter 1093

Sierra Vista United Methodist Church

Address: 3225 St Andrews Drive

Sierra Vista, AZ 85650

Bill Colberg

850-249-8898

vvavso@cox.net

June 28 , 2014

Wilmington, North Carolina

11:00 to 1:00

Elks Lodge Wilmington, NC

Contact: Tony Musolino 910-352-5128

tondeb@yahoo.com

July 19, 2014

Lewisburg, West Virginia

Armory

1:00-4:00

Contact: Dave Simmons

dsimmons@vva.org