Police
investigation of Mr. Antolini
Agent Orange:
The Silent Killer
Tay Dinh and Marci Sanchez
Honor’s American Literature
Dr. Reinartz
June 6th, 2008
Introduction
Introduction
The Kohima Epitaph states, “When you go home, tell
them of us and say, for their tomorrows, we gave our today.” Yet, what happens
when the lucky few that return home after the way are slowly killed off before
their stories can be heard? What happens when to even step on Vietnamese soil,
your body can be infected you with a deadly disease causing agent that
deteriorates health and kill years later? The slow killer named Agent Orange
turns these rhetorical questions into part of everyday life for Americans
Vietnam War’s Veterans. Originally, Agent Orange was a pesticide that was used
in an attempt to defoliate the foliage in the jungles of Vietnam. This in
theory would deprive enemy Viet Cong hiding places. The spraying of Agent
Orange occurred between January 1965 and April 1970 and totaled about six
million acres of land sprayed. All four military zones of Vietnam were sprayed
with herbicides and more than 19 million gallons of herbicides were used. The
three most infamous pesticides were Agents Orange, White, and Blue. Today all
Agents used in the war are referred to as Agent Orange. Preceding the use of
Agent Orange, Agents Purple and Pink were the first defoliants used. The
defoliation campaign which allowed for Agent Orange to be used was originally
referred to as code name “Operation Hades,” but later changed to “Operation
Ranch Hand” used Air force planes and helicopters to disperse the
defoliants. While many believe that Agent Orange is a visibly orange gas, in
reality it is invisible to the eye and sight alone cannot detect
it.
The origins of the name Agent Orange actually
comes from the orange colored streak on the label of the drums that hold the
pesticide. It is the presence of TCDD otherwise known as Dioxin that is harmful
to the human body.
In Journal of Occupational And Environmental
Medicine released in August of 2003, a report that even 30 years after
defoliation ended there are still high levels of dioxins in food and residents
of Vietnam. As a result of killing natural resources, 21 species of animals are
now on the endangered species list. These animals include the Tonkin,
snub-nosed monkey, and the clouded leopard.
Within this oral history, the stories of three
different men infected with Agent Orange will be shared along with health
information, treatment, and the effects of Agent Orange even 30 years after the
initial use of the toxins.
The Story of a Navy Man
For many in the Navy recon teams, costal posts in
Vietnam was where the men ate, slept, and had recreational time. Life was not
spent in the deep jungles sprayed to kill off plants for John J. Morrison. He
contracted Agent Orange in a quite unimaginable way. He caught it, “Just being
around it, ah on the harbor in patrol boats on the river.” Mr. Morrison told us
when asked how a man who wasn’t in the Army or Marines as part of the ground
troops had contracted the Agent Orange pesticide. “Ah we didn’t see it, I
didn’t see it, it was in the water. The water spray and breathing it
in.” During the war Mr. Morrison had never seen the Agent Orange marked cans
let alone the spraying of the pesticides itself. “It wasn’t anything you could
sit and watch.” The base camp in which his hooch, rec room, and mess hall were
located at was deprived of defoliation and part of a jungle like camp on the
bay. It’s ironic that he contracted Agent Orange through the water since all of
his water patrols were “a more or less voluntary bit of mine. I would get bored
sitting around camp when I was off duty so I’d get on my boats…” The ways of
Agent Orange are still a mystery to him as is evident from, “I don’t know how
they made it, ah that’s getting into the technical part.” The first time he
heard about Agent Orange was “maybe middle-late seventies, around there. I was
having ah breathing problems. I was being treated up at the V.A. and they were
treating me for asthma at first. Then they ah thought it might have been
emphysema. None of their treatments were workin’ then they started treating me
for COPD. It’s been working so far.” With that he shifts from a memory to an
almost outwardly hopeful tone as if to wonder if his breathing troubles could
remain as distant as Vietnam itself. He didn’t hear about Agent Orange’s
negative side effects until long after he was affected. The effects he lives
with now and for everyday for the rest of his life include “prostate cancer,
skin cancer, COPD (a pulmonary disease),” and colon cancer. Yet he still is
looking at the bright side since he said, “Thankfully, I don’t have diabetes
which is another one of the effects. But I don’t have that.” Through the V.A.
Mr. John J. Morrison’s medical expenses are paid for him. When asked about how
often he has to go to medical visits he stated, “Oh, there sort of taking it
off now since they figured what was really wrong with me. The treatments are
good. It started out I was going about once a week for two years. And then
after several years, once they decided I had CODP I went to monthly.” There was
a pause then he continued on happily, “Now I go in about 3 maybe four times a
year for check-ups. Now that’s just CODP, I’ve got skin cancer and I go every
couple of months.” The effects of the diseases caused by Agent Orange
influences his current everyday life. “I’ve got to watch things ah, like I’ve
developed allergies to most plants. The floral scents… that’s just to name a
few of my allergies so I’ve got to watch what I’m doing. And if I ah, I’ve also
got to watch what I’m doing because it effects my breathing. Sometimes all I’ve
got to do is kneel down and pick something up and stand up and already I’m
(made comic panting noises and put his hand on his chest in a playful
exaggerated manner).” Mr. Morrison wasn’t the only member of the U. S. Navy to
come back to America with Agent Orange poisoning. In fact, while we were
interviewing Mr. Morrison, he pointed out and described different Veteran’s
eating lunch at different tables within the American Legion that had diseases
originating from Agent Orange contact. “Just about everybody. The V.A. ah,
finally came around to acknowledge that all you had to do was set foot in
Vietnam and you were exposed. Because it’s in the air, it’s in the water, its
everywhere.” With so many people affected by the devastating consequences of
Agent Orange it can be surprising that few veterans discus its impact amongst
themselves. Mr. Morrison summed it all up by saying, “We just keep on
going.” Despite all that has happened to Mr. Morrison he thought that while in
the military “it [life] was good, I thought it was good. Now a lot of people
will disagree with me but no, I enjoyed my carrier in the Navy and I’d do it
all over again.”
The Story of an Army Man
John Lowe, a sergeant of the Army’s 9th
Infantry Division from November of 1965 to November of 1967 gave a different
outlook on his memories with Agent Orange, commenting, “I’m also 100% percent
disabled posttraumatic stress order, so I don’t have much of a memory anymore.”
Preceding the war, Lowe commented that he had various problems with trust and
developing relationships. “The way we were treated, in general, by the public
and the media, a lot of us didn’t trust people. They kind of stigmatized us as
a generation.” He also commented that from many veterans were “making sure the
same things don’t happen to the guys coming back,” because of the less than
positive reactions to today’s war.
“I used to have combat nightmares, daytime combat
flashbacks in stressful situations that bring on anger,” Lowe mentioned,
continuing on his emotional state following the war. “I used to go to bars just
to start fights,” Lowe had said, laughing. “’Cause I needed the
adrenaline.”
He commented that he first heard about Agent
Orange in 1977 but it took him many years before he could go to the VA because,
he reminded us, he had a hard time trusting people after the war. He said
straight out that he didn’t use the internet a lot, and refused to enter sites
where he had to register with his name, email, address, etc. He came out as an
extremely cautious person, watching his back. “But the VA’s great now.” Lowe’s
physical traumas weren’t as prominent as his emotional ones, claiming,
“Diabetes, they wasn’t any manifestations. It took a while to adjust to
diabetes.”
“We were never sprayed directly with it, it was in
the waters, the streams,” Lowe said, stating what all other veterans had said.
He believed the purpose of Agent Orange was to accelerate the growth of plants
so it would die and deny the Viet Cong their hiding. He talked about how it his
troop’s duty to “defend Saigon from the Cambodian border to the sea, the
southern access to Saigon.”
He and his fellow veterans don’t linger too much
on the diseases that Agent Orange caused, but rather talk about their memories
in the Army and reminders such as, “have you filed that claim yet?” Lowe was
part of the original class suit against various chemical companies developing
Agent Orange. “We got only, maybe, 37 dollars afterwards. I know there was a
fund, but I don’t know what happened it.” Lowe said, telling us how class
action suits never worked, and even then it took years for the government to
apologize for using them as guinea pigs.
The Story of a Marine Man
The marines are renowned for their difficult
training, harsh rules, and even harsher active combat. For Mr. Carlson this
harsh life under the U.S. Marine Corps was an undeniable truth. A sergeant E5
he enlisted in 1964 in order to get his school buddy five more days of
leave. Little did he know that that decision would bring killing, death, and
even personal sickness into his life. At the young age of seventeen his father
challenged him as if to ask “Is this what you really want?” Yet Mr. Carlson
educated in an all boys catholic school in downtown Minnesota did not know what
he wanted. It was this indecision that forced him into the Marines until
1968. For a man who lived for four years in fear that his post would be
attacked both day and night his new fears are of Agent Orange’s cruel game with
his body. Every day he faces the “silent killer”, as he like to call it. Every
year since 1998 when he went to the V.A. for mandatory treatment of his jungle
rot, a disease that resulted from the harsh weather conditions of Vietnam that
often leaves his skin peeling from his hands and arms, he found out in an all
too real way what Agent Orange was. Every six months he makes the routine trip
to the doctor’s office for, “blood checks, eyes, feet, and skin disease
checks”. His body has been shown to have an active form of skin cancer. To
prevent further spread of the Melanoma he must repeatedly go to the doctor’s
office and get his skin, stretched out, cut out, and put back together
again. Resulting in this he feels pain for months on end and his fingers are
closer together. The diabetes in his body causes him to take longer to heal
than most. For an aging man this causes many fears about the ability of his
body to keep pace with the damage the outside environment has on it. “Large
amount of diabetics are dying earlier in life than they normally would”, he
told us. Besides the physical pain, Mr. Carlson admitted to us with tear
brimmed eyes that his everyday life has been utterly changed by Agent
Orange. He can only eat certain things now for fear that it will react poorly
with his body. He had to give up smoking and drinking which was no easy feat
since he had done been smoking for 47 out of the 62 years of his life. From the
curses of Agent Orange Mr. Carlson still feels a bit bitter over troops being
used like a “guinea pigs” during the war. He told us of farmers dying early in
life due to the pesticides they used and wonders why such obvious signs were
not noticed by the companies that manufactured the defoliant. He wished that
the V.A. had come forward with their knowledge earlier in life before the
symptoms of Diabetes such as loosing feeling in feet started showing in him and
his peers. For all his hassle he gets 30% disability. 10% of his disability
comes from the jungle rot and the other 20% from the Agent Orange. He knows of
stories of a nurse that now has Agent Orange from being stationed in
Vietnam. In seemed to him that everyone in Vietnam was affected by Agent
Orange. Even his Barber has prostate cancer after serving in the war. Although
he says “thank you very much lord” for his time in Vietnam and his safe return
to the United States, he “would still do it all over again”. The Agent Orange,
the fear of the Viet Cong, even the Jungle Rot as he explained to us, helped to
shape the person he is now.
Health Effects
Those who were exposed to Agent Orange suffered
various health problems, whether by water or just the pesticide being in the
air. Many hadn’t realized that they had been exposed and are suffering the
effects until years after their service in Vietnam had ended. In 1978 the
Veterans Affairs created Agent Orange Registry Health Examinations. Since then,
more than 315,000 veterans have had the examination done. In the examination, a
patience’s medical history is checked followed by a physical exam, lab testing,
chest x-rays, urinalysis, blood testing for diabetes, and testing of their feet
for jungle rot. It wasn’t until June 9th of 2003 that the Supreme
Court voted to allow compensation and medical care for those who were affected
by Agent Orange. A trust fund for $180 million was provided for Agent Orange
victims by the companies that had created the defoliation products. This was
after lawsuits for health endangerment were filed by the
veterans.
One disease is chronic lymphocytic leukemia is one
of the main types of leukemia and generally occurs in people at least 50 years
old. It increases the production of white blood cells, and eventually “crowding
out” normal blood cells. The chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells are then unable
to fight an infection as efficiently. In 2003, the VA announced there were as
many as 1,000 new patients for chronic lymphocytic leukemia alone among Vietnam
veterans.
Another is peripheral neuropathy (transient acute
or sub acute). Peripheral neuropathy is a nervous system condition that causes
numbness, tingling, paralysis, increased sensitivity and muscle weakness. Only
the short-term acute and sub acute forms of this have been associated with
herbicide exposure, generally within one or two years of service.
One of the most common effects from Agent Orange
is Type 2 Diabetes (Diabetes mellitus) which is defined by high blood sugar
levels that are a result from the body’s inability to respond correctly to the
hormone insulin. All three veterans; Lowe, Morrison, and Carlson have diabetes.
The second is prostate cancer, occurring when the prostate cells mutate and
begin to multiply out of control. Other effects, although less common but still
a possibility is Chloracne, a skin condition that is similar to acne companied
by numerous blackheads. Multiple myeloma, respiratory cancers, including lung,
trachea, and bronchus cancer are also possible when exposed to Agent
Orange. Porphyria cutanea tarda, Hodgkin’s disease, soft tissue sarcoma,
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma are also possible effects.
In 1999 a Canadian study in Alvoi Valley took
place. Children who were born near Agent Orange defoliation were 8% more likely
to develop hernias. They were also 3% more likely to develop cleft plates, be
mentally retarded, or be born with birth defects.
Children of veterans who encountered this
pesticide may have spina bifida which is a neural tube birth defect that
results from the failure of the bony portion of the spine to close properly in
the developing fetus during early pregnancy. Common birth defects of children
are kidney abnormalities, enlarged liver/head, club foot, intestinal
hemorrhage, missing or abnormal fingers/toes, missing or abnormal reproductive
organs, missing, abnormal or displaced body parts. Miscarriages are also a
large possibility.
Recently, the VA announced that it might possibly
provide coverage for veterans who suffer from hypertension from the results of
Agent Orange.
Compensation
According to John Lowe, “It took many years, I
know, one of the groups I was involved in, Vietnam Veterans Salute of America
was behind the push to get recognition over exposure to Agent Orange and it
took a lot of years to force the government to recognize the problem.” Once the
government did recognize the problem, they were “very good about it. If you
were in country in Vietnam, not matter what your duty was, if you were in
country in Vietnam, now it’s an automatic 20% disability with the Veterans, and
any of the diseases they’ve identified to relate to Agent Orange, they cover
the medical cost for any treatment of it.”
To get compensation, the VA requires a medical
diagnosis of a disease that the VA recognizes as being associated with Agent
Orange during one’s service, evidence of one’s service in Vietnam, and medical
evidence that the disease began within their time in the war. Compensation
rates are based on the veteran’s combined severity for their
“service-connected” disabilities. There are additional amounts that are paid to
certain veterans with severe disabilities, known as “special monthly
compensation.”
Over the yearse, many groups have filed various
lawsuits against the government and various companies that were involved in
creating Agent Orange to recieve compensation for the effects of Agent Orange,
the latest was on March 10th of 2005 when Judge Jack Weinstein of
the Brooklyn Federal Court dismissed the suit filed by Vietamese victims of
Agent Orange against chemica companies that produced Agent Orange and other
herbicides that were tainted with a high level of dioxin. Weinstein dismissed
the case because he believed it did not fit his definition of “chemical warfare
and thereby did not violate international warfare.”
Other veterans who have also filed lawsuits
against chemical companies have reached the supreme court but were sent back to
Weinstein, who proceeded to dmiss the case.
December 1, 1999, compensation for a veteran with
no dependents was $98 (ten percent severity) and $188 for twenty percent. From
there it grew gradually until in 2007, it reached $117 for ten percent, and
$230 for twenty percent. Along with the compensation payments, Lowe mentioned
that all medication for diseases associated with Agent Orange was covered by
the government
Veteran Status: 30% - 70% With
Children (1999)
|
Dependent Status
|
30%
|
40%
|
50%
|
60%
|
70%
|
|
Spouse & Child
|
$348
|
$493
|
$689
|
$863
|
$1, 077
|
|
Child Only
|
$312
|
$445
|
$629
|
$791
|
$993
|
|
Spouse, One Parent and Child
|
$376
|
$531
|
$736
|
$920
|
$1, 143
|
|
Spouse, Two Parents and Child
|
$404
|
$569
|
$783
|
$977
|
$1, 209
|
|
One Parent and Child
Two Parents and Child
|
$340
$368
|
$483
$521
|
$676
$723
|
$848
$905
|
$1, 059
$1, 125
|
Veteran Status: 30% - 70% With
Children (2007)
|
Dependent Status
|
30%
|
40%
|
50%
|
60%
|
70%
|
|
Spouse & Child
|
$429
|
$610
|
$850
|
$1, 068
|
$1, 332
|
|
Child Only
|
$384
|
$550
|
$776
|
$978
|
$1, 228
|
|
Spouse, One Parent and Child
|
$463
|
$655
|
$907
|
$1, ,136
|
$1, 411
|
|
Spouse, Two Parents and Child
|
$497
|
$700
|
964
|
$1, 204
|
$1, 490
|
|
One Parent and Child
Two Parents and Child
|
$418
$452
|
$595
$640
|
$833
$890
|
$1, 046
$1, 114
|
$1, 307
$1, 386
|
Conclusion