The U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin has announced an action plan for the period of 2010-2019 with an estimated expenditure of $300 million, state media reported on June 17. The plan, released at a press briefing in Hanoi June 16, will focus on cleaning dioxin-contaminated land areas, restoring the environment and supporting the victims, the Vietnam News Agency cited Co-chair of the Dialogue Group Ngo Quang Xuan. Xuan’s counterpart, Walter Isaacson called for the U.S. government’s sufficient support to the plan, saying that satisfactorily settling with the AO/dioxin issue is very significant to boost the two countries’ sprouting relations.
"The cleanup of our mess from the Vietnam War will be far less costly than the Gulf oil spill that BP will have to clean up," the U.S.’s Associated Press quoted Walter Isaacson as saying June 16. American troops reportedly sprayed 75 million liters of AO/dioxin and other defoliants on southern Vietnamese battlefields from 1962-1971.
An estimate 4.8 million Vietnamese people are exposed to the deadly toxic chemical and more than three million of them are facing health problems resulted from the exposure. In 2004, the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA) filed suit against 37 U.S. chemical firms of producing and supplying toxic defoliants for armies to use in Vietnam war. Washington Administration approved $6 million in total for programs to assist AO/dioxin victims and mitigate impacts of the toxic chemicals in Vietnam between 2007 and 2009. The U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin was set up in February 2007 under the assistance of the Ford Foundation, gathering many policymakers, scientists, leaders of non-governmental organizations, and enterprises from the two countries.
