The U.S. House of Representatives will hold a hearing in Washington D.C. July 15 to examine the needs of Vietnamese victims exposed to the toxic chemical sprayed by American troops during the war in Vietnam. The hearing, the third of its kind, will be chaired by Congressman Eni Faleomavaega, chairman of the Asia and Pacific Affairs Subcommittee of U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Foreign Affairs, the Vietnam News Agency said Jul 11. The event will be in the presence of Matthew Palmer, Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of State; Ph.D. John Wilson from the U.S. Agency for International Development; M.D. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong, member of the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group on AO/Dioxin; and Tran Thi Hoan, an AO victim. Hoan and Doctor Phuong, accompanied by American veterans, will meet with other members of the U.S. House of Representatives and a number of senators on their stay in Washington July 12-16.
The five-day trip will be sponsored by the Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign.
The communist authorities are still campaigning for the U.S. government’s responsibility to Vietnamese victims exposed to AO/dioxin which is estimated at up to 4.8 million.
Since the two countries normalized their diplomatic relations 15 years ago and particularly in recent years, many delegations of American veterans and senators have returned Vietnam to visit the old battlefield and take moves to help the Southeast Asian country overcome war consequences.
Senator Tom Harkin, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and his colleagues visited Vietnam early last week.
Speaking with Vietnam media, Harkin said the AO/dioxin issue is the biggest concern on his trip.
