Vietnam Vets Join Women's Agent Orange Delegation from Vietnam

Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign arrives in the San Francisco Bay Area 29 October 2008.

November 2008 Vietnam Agent Orange justice tour
Press release

Paul Cox email: coxschueler [at] igc.org (510)418.3436

U.S. Veterans Vow Support for Female Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange in their Fight for Justice – Launch international campaign against Dow/Monsanto

This week, for the first time in the San Francisco Bay Area, U. S. veterans are speaking out in support of an all-women delegation of Agent Orange victims from Vietnam. The delectation includes a 21-year-old college student who was born without legs because of her mother’s exposure to Agent Orange.

OAKLAND, OCT 28, Tues, 7 pm, Eastside Arts Alliance 2277 International
Blvd (@ 23d Avenue)

SANTA ROSA, OCT 29, Wed, 7 pm, Glaser Center, 547 Mendocino (@ 10th)

SAN FRANCISCO, OCT 30, Thurs, 7 pm, Veterans' Building, Room 223, 401
Van Ness (@ McAllister)

At these events the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign will simultaneously announce an International Corporate Campaign to publicly pressure Dow Chemical and Monsanto to compensate Vietnamese Agent Orange victims and help clean up lands contaminated by Agent Orange.

More than 30 years after the end of the U.S. war that killed more than 58,000 Americans and 3 million Vietnamese, U.S. veterans are demanding compensation for their Vietnamese counterparts. The delegation is asking the US government and the companies which profited so handsomely from manufacturing Agent Orange to meet the urgent needs of Vietnam’s victims and to clean up lands contaminated by Agent Orange.

On Monday, October 6, the delegation submitted a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court to reconsider their case against the chemical companies. The Vietnamese victims are suing Dow Chemical, Monsanto and 35 other chemical manufacturers that produced Agent Orange.

Three million Vietnamese and tens of thousand of U.S. soldiers are affected by Agent Orange.
Agent Orange causes cancers as well as severe birth defects in several generations of children.
Agent Orange continues to poison the natural environment, soil and crops of Vietnam.

Speaking at the event will be:
Paul Cox among other local Vietnam Veterans

Tran Thi Hoan, a 21-year-old second-generation victim of Agent Orange who was born without legs and one hand. Ms. Tran is now a college student and speaks English.

Dang Hong Nhut, who was in an area heavily sprayed with Agent Orange during the war, suffered several miscarriages and still-births. She has had cancerous tumors both in her intestine and in her thyroid.

The Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign is organizing citizen action for U.S. government and chemical company compensation for Vietnam’s Agent Orange victims.