PressEthic

The legacy of damage done by Agent Orange in Vietnam, both to American veterans and today's population of Vietnamese, gets scant attention in the media.

President Bush's visit this week was prefaced by a scattering of stories on the illnesses and birth defects linked to exposure to dioxin, one of the chemicals in Agent Orange.

It's an issue that generally gets little attention in our media. Bush's 3-day visit to Vietnam offered an opportunity to educate the American public about the (presumably unintended) consequences of the war we extricated ourselves from 30 years ago.

In recent weeks, there have been an unusually high number of stories in the American press about Agent Orange. Which is not saying much.

It's not nearly enough, but it's better than the usual silence.

Back in the August issue of Vanity Fair, Christopher Hitchens published a harrowing personal account of the deformities Agent Orange exposure has caused in children.

This week, NPR aired a story about Bush's visit to Vietnam, and reported that the two presidents made a statement about the need for further binational cooperation on clean-up efforts.

Last week, the Washington Post published a sensitive story describing a current clean-up project in Da Nang.

Vietnamese and U.S. officials last year conducted their first joint scientific research project related to Agent Orange. Testing of the soil near Da Nang's airport, where farmers say they have been unable to grow rice or fruit trees for decades, showed dioxin levels there as much as 100 times above acceptable international standards.

Now the United States is planning to co-fund a project to remove massive amounts of the chemical from the soil. A senior U.S. official involved in Vietnam policy said the plan is evidence that the two countries, having embarked on a new era of economic cooperation, are finally collaborating to address the problem.

The Post interviewed a 25-year-old who was born as a conjoined twin who draws a link to the U.S.'s current involvement in Iraq.

"I find it ironic that on one hand you put [Saddam Hussein] on trial for using biological warfare, but in another country where you sprayed chemicals for warfare, you neglect your responsibility," said Duc Nguyen ...

"The United States must admit it's responsible and compensate the Agent Orange victims in Vietnam," he said. "It is your moral obligation. Sooner or later, it has to be done."