Vietnam is pressing the Monsanto Company, which is now owned by Germany's Bayer AG, to compensate the millions of innocent Vietnamese that either died or were sickened by the cancer-causing defoliant called Agent Orange.
This toxic defoliant was sprayed over 30,000 miles of land in South Vietnam by the U.S. Army from 1961 to 1971 during the Vietnam War. The Vietnamese estimate as many as three million Vietnamese have suffered illnesses because of Agent Orange. The Red Cross of Vietnam believes that up to one million Vietnamese have either been disabled or have health problems as a result of Agent Orange contamination.
The demand by the Vietnamese government is part of its renewed push targeting Monsanto and nine other contractors that manufactured Agent Orange. It follows a decision by a California jury made two weeks ago ordering Monsanto to pay a dying school pest control manager $289 million.
Lawyers of Dewayne Johnson, 46, successfully argued that Roundup, a weed killer made by Monsanto, caused terminal cancer that will kill Johnson before 2020. Monsanto is facing 5,000 other lawsuits directly linked to Roundup and its active ingredient, glyphosate.
The foreign ministry also said Vietnam suffered massive damage from the war, especially with regard to the persistent and devastating effects of a number of toxic chemicals used by the Americans such as Agent Orange.
Between 1961 and 1971, the U.S. military sprayed more than 80 million liters of Agent Orange, whose active ingredient is a toxic, cancer-causing substance called dioxin, over Vietnamese forest in a misguided effort to deprive Viet Cong guerrillas of the trees and dense undergrowth that gave them cover.
Agent Orange was a defoliant and herbicide used by the U.S. military as part of its herbicidal warfare program code-named Operation Ranch Hand. Research estimates up to four million Vietnamese were exposed to the toxic and cancer-causing defoliant.
