The Legacy of Agent Orange

I remember watching Walter Cronkite report on the U.S. defoliation of Vietnam's forests. Enemy forces were hiding in the woods, he explained, as images of herbicide dusters swooping over Vietnamese jungle flickered on my TV screen. Agent Orange couldn't be good for people's health, I thought. I was right. Thirty-five years after the last plane dropped its toxic load, Vietnam continues to suffer the consequences of American chemical warfare. Vast tracts of land appear to have been destroyed forever, rural livelihoods stunted, cancers and birth defects are legion. On top of it all, dioxin "hot spots" at former U.S. airbases -- where herbicide was loaded onto planes -- are oozing poison into water bodies where people gather food.