Friday, August 23, 2019

It's not the Agent Orange - it's "the normal response to war - acute stress."

First published in the Sydney Morning Herald on August 23, 1985
"The Royal Commissioner, Justice Evatt, laid the blame for the veterans' problems on the normal response to war - acute stress."
CANBERRA: The Agent Orange Royal Commission has made a clear finding there is no link between chemical defoliants sprayed over Vietnam and the health problems suffered by veterans of the war.
In a nine-volume 3,000-page report tabled in Federal Parliament yesterday, the Royal Commissioner, Justice Evatt, laid the blame for the veterans' problems on the normal response to war - acute stress. The Commission on the Use and Effects of Chemical Agents on Australian Personnel in Vietnam, to give it its full title, was set up soon after the Hawke Government was elected.
The Veterans Affairs Minister, Senator Gietzelt, told Parliament yesterday the Government accepted the report's central finding, but criticised its "extravagant and unnecessary " language.
"The Royal Commissioner, Justice Evatt, laid the blame for the veterans' problems on the normal response to war - acute stress."
The report said its not guilty finding "is not a matter for regret but for rejoicing ... This is good news, and it is the Commission's fervent hope it will be shouted from the rooftops. "

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