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And I Bet You Thought You Were Safe
by James Glaser January 31, 2008 It seems that it happens every time I go to a Veterans Administration Hospital or Clinic. Like any hospital, there is reading material in the waiting room. At the VA it is usually very old, and it is all donated by veterans. There are magazines from the VFW, American Legion, Blind Vets, and The Fraternal Order of the Purple Heart, and maybe a copy of the Jewish Veterans magazine. In with those it is not uncommon to find a copy of the Agent Orange Review or something put out by a local Post. During today's appointment I was reading a copy of the "Free Fire Wire" a handout from Chapter 96 of the Vietnam Veterans of America. Under the heading, "The Agent Orange Saga Continues," there was a report of how Vietnam wasn't the only place our government sprayed Agent Orange. Spraying from planes was not the only way to cover the ground with chemicals. "Defoliants were also sprayed from land vehicles and 'Indian Tanks' on the backs of GIs." The article directed you to a VA web page www.va.gov/agentorange/ that gives a Department of Defense Report on "Herbicides Used Outside of Vietnam." We have been testing and using these chemicals for decades, and here is a list of some of the places we tried them out. Apalachicola National Forest, Florida
And these were just the places in the US. We also sprayed in: India
These are the places that the Department of Defense admits to using herbicides. Here is a list of some of the chemicals they were using. Cacdylic acid
This list isn't everything they were using, but it gives you some idea of the kitchen sink of chemicals they have sprayed around America. Children in Vietnam are still born with birth defects, Vietnam veterans are still coming down with illnesses attributed to herbicide spraying during the war, and we don't know what all of these chemicals are. More important, we don't know if the Department of Defense has stopped this kind of testing, nor do we know if other government agencies have done these kinds of tests in our country or if they have on-going tests today. |
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