US Media Urges Government to Help Viet Nam Deal with Dioxin

The Time, a prestigious US magazine, in its Mar. 12 edition carried an article, written by Walter Isaacson, Director of the Aspen Institute, urging the US Government to help Viet Nam detoxify Agent Orange (AO)/Dioxin-contaminated areas. The US should immediately assist Viet Nam to detoxify the areas contaminated by the defoliant sprayed by the US military during the US-led war in the country because the US caused the contamination, the article said, stressing that health issues resulting from the contamination should be dealt with as a humanitarian issue rather than a compensational issue. The magazine suggested that rehabilitation centres, clinics and health consultancy centres be established from Viet Nams northern province of Thai Binh to its central province of Quang Ngai to provide medical treatment and check-ups services for AO-affected children.

In a responsible and moral spirit, the US Governments aid programmes and private humanitarian organisations should resolve the last vestiges of the Viet Nam war, the magazine said.

During last Novembers visit to Viet Nam by US President George W. Bush, a
joint statement issued at the end of a meeting between the two countries leaders cautiously referred to the need to resolve the environmental pollution problem around the AO-contaminated areas and the need of humanitarian aid for the Vietnamese disabled people, the magazine noted. If the US Congress and Defence Department choose to get with this programme, they could go a long way toward resolving this crucial issue by the time Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet visits Washington in June, the article stressed, adding that only then, would the US be able to close the last chapter of the Viet Nam war.