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Viewpoint: A healing agent for Vietnam
Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet arrived in the U.S. Monday for a week-long business trip, accompanied by his cabinet ministers and a business delegation. Pictured smiling and waving in photos across international news outlets, this is the first time a Vietnamese leader has visited the U.S. since the end of the Vietnam War more than 30 years ago. He paid a visit Tuesday to the New York Stock Exchange to boast his country's economic reforms and advancement. Exports from the U.S. to Vietnam have increased by 300 percent since 2000, when the two countries signed the Bilateral Trade Agreement, and this visit serves as an economic milestone for the two countries. With Vietnam emerging as a successful developing nation, both governments clearly have dollar signs in their eyes.
But U.S. officials and Triet must also use this visit as an opportunity to address the detrimental social concerns between America and Vietnam. Although Triet was not in attendance, on the same day of his arrival, lawyers representing nearly 3,000,000 Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange appealed the dismissal of their civil lawsuit to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Plaintiffs aim to hold more than 30 U.S. chemical companies liable for billions of dollars in compensatory damages and environmental cleanup costs for producing and supplying defoliants during the Vietnam War. While Triet kisses the hands of the U.S. economic sphere, he should bring up the fact that millions of his citizens are also suffering physically and mentally from Americans' use of chemicals and that the U.S. has yet to take responsibility by committing to recovery efforts abroad. He should also take part in the case against the U.S. companies that used Agent Orange, possibly even after suspicion of its harmful effects. According to the American Cancer Society, the U.S. military sprayed nearly 19 million gallons of herbicide on about 3.6 million acres of land in Vietnam and Laos to destroy forests and crops. The herbicides contained trace amounts of TCDD dioxin, which has been said to be the most toxic chemical known to science. The most widely used herbicide mixture came in a drum marked with an orange stripe, earning it a nickname that many have come to associate with utter destruction. The Texan strives to present all information fairly, accurately and completely.
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Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 22
Ron C
posted 6/21/07 @ 11:13 AM CST
Today's Viewpoint editorial, 'A Healing Agent for Vietnam', urged that compensation be paid to the three million Vietnamese men women and children injured by Agent Orange, adding that "the [Vietnam] conflict is not completely over until the U. (Continued…)
Jeff Shi
posted 6/21/07 @ 11:14 AM CST
What about the potentially hundreds of American POW's held in South Asian prisons since the Vietnam War? Where is your bleeding heart for them?
Buddy
posted 6/21/07 @ 11:57 AM CST
Vietnam is just that...Vietnam. The United States is just that...The United States. Our relations should be just that, as well....a relationship. We owe them nothing. (Continued…)
Ron C
posted 6/21/07 @ 2:51 PM CST
"We don't know EXACTLY how many of our guys are still left there."
(a) Either provide evidence that there are ANY Americans in captivity there or
(B) admit that without any proof, your 'potentially hundreds' are actually just figments of your imagination. (Continued…)
peter
posted 6/21/07 @ 6:37 PM CST
There's a proverbial idiom, "All's fair in love and war". Instead of blaming themselves and its past leadership, these people have the audacity to come to the US to appeal the decision of an US court. (Continued…)
MarDivPhoto
posted 6/21/07 @ 9:19 PM CST
Perhaps just a few facts might be considered. First, the promise to help rebuild Viet Nam with many billions of bucks that was part of the Paris Accords depended on a couple of key points, one of which was the guarantee from Hanoi that they would NOT INVADE the South. (Continued…)
Ron C
posted 6/22/07 @ 11:17 AM CST
Peter: "Instead of [Vietnam] blaming themselves and its past leadership..."
... for America's decision to attack them, using lies as an excuse, and killing millions of their citizens??
Wake up!
President Polk lied to the nation about the reason for going to war with Mexico in 1846. (Continued…)
Ron C
posted 6/22/07 @ 11:25 AM CST
TMarDivPhoto: "If you want to feel guilty about the US and Viet Nam, feel guilty about these men, and their families, and those who died in the "re-education" camps. (Continued…)
Ron C
posted 6/25/07 @ 11:49 AM CST
Peter: "Living in this country this long (20years+), I found out that the US government only defends its national interest."
Even if they have to thwart democracy, and support dictators and despots to do so, as they did all over Latin America, and even if the supposed threat posed by the Domino theory and Saddam's nuclear arsenal were actually purely figments of their imagination? And that's ok with you? How pathetic. (Continued…)
Ron C
posted 6/25/07 @ 12:15 PM CST
MarDiv writes, "And then you trot out the classic Hiroshima/Nagasaki nonsense, as if there were no reasons for that action, horrible as it was. Maybe you would have preferred the invasion, which would unquestionably have taken literally millions of Japanese lives and a few hundred thousand Americans as well. (Continued…)
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