NY Times Op-Ed

Danielle Trussoni has an Op-Ed in Monday's New York Times:

...Today the federal Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in Manhattan, is scheduled to hear oral arguments against Dow, Monsanto and 35 other companies that manufactured Agent Orange and related herbicides used during the Vietnam War. In addition, 16 appeals by American veterans will be heard, as well as an appeal by a group that represents Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange.

The veterans and the Vietnamese are seeking the reinstatement of lawsuits dismissed in March 2005 by Judge Jack Weinstein of Federal District Court in Brooklyn. The plaintiffs are asking the court to acknowledge that Agent Orange has damaged the lives of thousands of people in both the United States and Vietnam.

One of the Vietnamese civilians taking part in this appeal is a woman named Dang Hong Nhut, who lived in Cu Chi during the war, the very same part of Vietnam where my father spent his tour. After losing numerous babies to miscarriage and deformity, Dang Hong Nhut sent a biopsy abroad for analysis. The results showed that, years after the war, her body still retained traces of dioxin. In a television interview, she said: “It doesn’t matter if the companies won’t admit their crimes. What really counts is that people see that a crime took place.”

It has been eight years since I went to Vietnam, and I am just starting to understand that my trip was less about changing the past, an impossible pursuit by any stretch of the imagination, and more about taking the time to understand and recognize the mistakes of the Vietnam War. Perhaps now, after 40 years, the victims of Agent Orange will finally get such recognition.