Many ecosystems have been destroyed and Dioxin continues to poison Vietnam, especially in the several "hot spots."
Chemist Dr. Pierre Vermeulin testified that it was estimated that $1 billion would be required to restore one hectare of land in Vietnam. The cost of caring for the victims, many of whom need 24-hour care, is enormous.
In 1973, President Richard Nixon promised $3.25 billion in reconstruction aid to Vietnam "without any preconditions." That aid was never granted.
There are only 11 Friendship Villages in Vietnam; 1,000 are needed to care for the child victims of Agent Orange.
Last week, the Bureau of the IADL, meeting in Hanoi, presented President Nguyen Minh Triet of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam with the final decision of the Tribunal. The judges found the US government and the chemical companies guilty of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and ecocide during the illegal US war of aggression in Vietnam. We recommended that the Agent Orange Commission be established in Vietnam to assess the damages suffered by the people and destruction of the environment, and that the US government and the chemical companies provide compensation for the damage and destruction.
I told the president that it always struck me that even as US bombs were dropping on the people of Vietnam, they always distinguished between the American government and the American people. The president responded, "We fought the forces of aggression but we always reserved our love for the people of America ... because we knew they always supported us."
An estimated 3 million Vietnamese people were killed in the war, which also claimed 58,000 American lives. For many other Vietnamese and US veterans and their families, the war continues to take its toll.
Several treaties the United States has ratified require an effective remedy for violations of human rights. It is time to make good on Nixon's promise and remedy the terrible wrong the US government perpetrated on the people of Vietnam. Congress must pass legislation to compensate the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange as it did for the US Vietnam veteran victims.
Our government must know that it cannot continue to use weapons that target and harm civilians. Indeed, the US military is using depleted uranium in Iraq and Afghanistan, which will poison those countries for incalculable decades.
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Marjorie Cohn, a professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law and president of the National Lawyers Guild, served as a judge on the International Peoples' Tribunal of Conscience in Support of the Vietnamese Victims of Agent Orange. She is a member of the Bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, and co-author of "Rules of Disengagement: The Politics and Honor of Military Dissent."
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