Word: viets
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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When U.S. Air Force flyers dumped millions of gallons of an oily herbicide called Agent Orange over the thick jungle canopy of war-ravaged Viet Nam, they unwittingly started a battle that would rage long after the last American helicopter left Saigon. Over the past 13 years, some 35,000 Viet Nam veterans have vigorously pressed Washington to compensate them for injuries and illnesses that they believe were caused by exposure to Agent Orange. The herbicide contains dioxin, a potent poison that causes cancer in laboratory animals. But Government officials have delayed paying most claims, pointing to a lack...
...long-awaited five-year study found "no evidence" that Agent Orange injured soldiers in the field. The report did conclude that Viet Nam veterans are more likely than the general population to get a rare, fatal cancer called non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. But for some mysterious reason, the veterans who suffer from this cancer were predominantly sailors who were stationed off the Viet Nam shore and who had relatively little exposure to the defoliant. Even though the CDC could find no link between Agent Orange and increased cancer, Veterans Affairs Secretary Edward Derwinski immediately authorized compensation for about...
That still leaves some 33,000 Agent Orange claimants who will get nothing, at least for now. They continue to maintain that the chemical is responsible for a jump in cancer among veterans and an increase in birth defects in their children. Julio Gonzales, 42, who served in Viet Nam for six months in 1969, feels sure that the series of disorders he has suffered since 1971, which include cancer of the bladder and problems with his kidneys and liver, was caused by Agent Orange. "The CDC can't see the forest for the trees," he says...
...will not make a final decision on the issue until two more reviews of the scientific literature being prepared for his department are completed this May. But unless that search uncovers compelling evidence that eluded the CDC, most of the veterans seem unlikely to get Government relief from their Viet Nam nightmare...
Meanwhile, Indian military leaders were pondering why things had gone so wrong in their rough equivalent of America's debacle in Viet Nam. Invited into Sri Lanka by then President J.R. Jayewardene, the Indian army's original mission was to collect arms from Tamil militants, who had been trained and equipped by India in the first place. In exchange, Jayewardene promised that the 2 million Tamils, who have suffered discrimination at the hands of the majority Sinhalese (11.8 million), would be given more autonomy over a newly created Northeastern province, where they predominate. But when the Tigers refused to give...