Journey for justice

Disabled children impacted by Agent Orange in Cu Chi. The first child is 3 years old. The girl in the middle is 11 years old. (Photo by Bob Edgar.)

This week I am leading an interfaith delegation to Vietnam to investigate the impact of Agent Orange.

For background, in the 35 years since the end of the war between the United States and Vietnam, the two countries have made great progress toward friendly relations.  But the war still reverberates today in the lives of millions of Americans and Vietnamese.  These include people affected then and now, directly and indirectly, the the U.S. spraying of Agent Orange and other herbicides over rural South Vietnam.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, as Chair of the House of Representative Veterans Subcommittee on Hospitals and Health Care, with the help of a dedicated Vietnam Veteran, Richard Fuller, I was one of the leaders of the effort to investigate the impact of Agent Orange and to help pass legislation giving our U.S. Veterans compensation for their exposure to Agent Orange during their service in Vietnam.  As the first anti-war member of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, I learned quickly that you could hate the war, but love and respect the warriors.  Many served their country without any thought to what chemical damages they might be exposed to during their service.

As U.S. Vietnam-era veterans know, some of the herbicides were contaminated with dioxin, a highly toxic and persistent organic pollutant linked to cancers, diabetes, birth defects and other disabilities.  Our Ford Foundation sponsored Interfaith Delegation mission here this week is to see the impacts of those herbicides on the people, especially the children and grandchildren and great grandchildren, still being harmed here in Vietnam.

We will talk with government officials, medical personnel and victims.  We will visit the “hot spots” left behind when the United States military pulled out in the Spring of 1975.  For me this journey is very personal.  I remember standing on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives in April 1975 when the Watergate Congressional Class of Congressmen, joined by others, finally shut off the funding for the war, over the objections of the then President Gerald Ford and his advisors, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. 

(If you want to see and interesting picture, go to the White House Computer Archives for April 22 or 23, 1975, and see the picture of President Ford, Cheney and Rumsfeld sitting in the Oval Office.  The President’s advisors were talking about putting troops in to encircle Saigon and create a new “surge of U.S. forces.  Thank God we had the courage to say: NO!  WOW, sound familiar?.!)

This year, Vietnam marks four important events: the 1,000th anniversary of the founding of Hanoi; the 35 anniversary of the end of the war with the United States; the 15th anniversary of U.S.-Vietnam diplomatic relations; and Vietnam’s chairing of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).  What a GREAT year to start a movement to finally address the challenges of the dioxin “hot spots,” damaged landscapes and human burdens of ill health and disability that are remaining as open wounds of the Vietnam War.  What a GREAT year to remember that wars are not over when the last soldier leaves.  What a GREAT year to teach the faith communities in the United States that our moral work related to Vietnam is not over.  What a great year to speak to the youth and young adults of America about this tragic part of our history.

I look forward to keeping you posted on our journey for justice.  It was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who said: “You and I will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of BAD people, but for the appalling silence of GOOD people.” Let us pledge to be silent no more.

Thank you to the following leaders for joining me on this journey: 

• Sister Maureen Fiedler, Sister of Loretto, PhD. and host of the public radio talk show Interfaith Voices.
• Rabbi Steve Gutow, President and CEO, Jewish Council for World Affairs.
• The Rev. Richard Cizik, President of the New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good and a Fellow at the Open Society Institute and UN Foundation.
• James Winkler, General Secretary, United Methodist General Board of Church and Society.
• Dr. Carroll A. Baltimore, Sr., First Vice President, Progressive National Baptist Convention.
• Paulette Peterson, Clinical Psychologist, U.S. Veterans Administration.
• Shariq A. Siddigui, the Executive Director of the Muslim Alliance of Indiana and Director of Legal Services at the Julian Center.
• The Rev. Michael Livingston, Executive Director , International Council of Community Churches and former President of the National Council of the Churches of Christ USA.
• The Rev. Victor Hsu, former staff for Asian Affairs at both World Vision and Church World Service.
• Susan V. Berresford, Convener of the U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin and former President, The Ford Foundation.
• Charles Bailey, Vietnam Program Director, The Ford Foundation.