[Ngo-lwg] Sen. Patrick Leahy: War legacies and the expanding U.S.-Vietnam partnership

[Chuck Searcy]

Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy and eight other U.S. Senators are in Viet Nam
this week to examine first-hand the cooperation and progress in recent
years between the U.S. and Viet Nam to neutralize or eliminate the legacies
of the war.  Two legacies continue to affect the lives of Vietnamese even
today: unexploded bombs and mines (UXO), and Agent Orange.

Leahy has been a real champion in this effort over the years.  He has
managed to channel significant funding to these initiatives through the
aptly named "Leahy War Victims Fund," so designated because of the high
regard in which Leahy is held by fellow Senators.

My colleagues at Project RENEW and others who work with us in Quang Tri
Province -- the provincial leadership, and NGOs NPA, MAG, Peace Trees,
Golden West -- will brief the delegation in Hue City and try to impress on
them the importance of continued U.S. support until these efforts are
brought to full *closure.*  With continued funding and leadership based on
our strong partnership, many of us believe that this goal can be achieved
within another decade.





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*CHUCK SEARCY Hà Nội, Việt Nam VN Cell  +8 490 342 0769*

*US Cell  +1 404 740 0653 Email     chuckusvn at gmail.com
<chuckusvn at gmail.com>*





Burlington Free Press
<https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/opinion/2019/04/16/patrick-leahy-war-legacies-and-expanding-u-s-vietnam-partnership/3487473002/>Patrick
Leahy: War legacies and the expanding U.S.-Vietnam partnership
Sen. Patrick LeahyPublished 4:36 p.m. ET April 16, 2019
[image: Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in 1996, shakes hands with a Vietnamese
man injured by a landmine gets who received his first wheelchair at a
clinic in Vietnam funded through the Leahy War Victims Fund.]

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., in 1996, shakes hands with a Vietnamese man
injured by a landmine gets who received his first wheelchair at a clinic in
Vietnam funded through the Leahy War Victims Fund. (Photo: Courtesy of Sen.
Leahy's Office)

When I became a senator for Vermont in 1975, one of the first votes I cast
was for a law to stop funding the war in Vietnam. That law passed by one
vote.

Many of us know people who served in the war. Some lost their lives. Others
were grievously wounded. Words cannot adequately describe the magnitude of
the catastrophe of that war for the people of both countries. Forty-four
years later, we still struggle in our country with the remnants of the
divisions in our society caused by the war, as do the people of Vietnam.

My involvement with post-war Vietnam began in 1989, when former President
George H. W. Bush and I talked about the need for reconciliation with
Vietnam — something that many Americans, including veterans, were calling
for.

President Bush agreed to use what was later named the Leahy War Victims
Fund to provide prosthetics and wheelchairs to Vietnamese who were disabled
from landmines and other unexploded bombs. That assistance, which continues
today, has enabled thousands of Vietnamese to regain their mobility, and
their dignity.

Of course, others had been working on the MIA issue even earlier. That work
helped bring closure to hundreds of American families. It was possible
thanks to the help of the Government of Vietnam, at a time when Vietnam was
struggling to recover from the war’s devastation.
[image: Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., right with back turned center, on a
visit to the USAID-funded facility for Vietnamese citizens with
disabilities, including illnesses caused by exposure to dioxin (Agent
Orange). Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., can be see on the far right. Leahy also
is the leader in Congress on this project.]

Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., right with back turned center, on a visit to the
USAID-funded facility for Vietnamese citizens with disabilities, including
illnesses caused by exposure to dioxin (Agent Orange). Rep. Peter Welch,
D-Vt., can be see on the far right. Leahy also is the leader in Congress on
this project. (Photo: Courtesy of Sen. Leahy's Office)

For many years the United States has also helped locate and destroy the
millions of landmines and other unexploded bombs that continue to maim and
kill innocent Vietnamese. Fortunately, thanks to that effort, the number of
casualties is far fewer today than it used to be. But more remains to be
done.

Over the years I had many conversations with Vietnamese officials, before
and after diplomatic relations were reestablished in 1995. No matter what
the subject of those conversations was, the Vietnamese always brought up
Agent Orange, and its effects on their people.

At the same time, American veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and
were suffering from cancers and other illnesses, were also seeking help
from our government. In 1991 the Department of Veterans Affairs recognized
those claims, but it wasn’t until another 15 years later that we began to
address this issue in Vietnam.

We started at the Da Nang Airport, a former U.S. military base where Agent
Orange, contaminated with dioxin, had been stockpiled. The U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID) deserves great credit for undertaking and
completing such a complex, difficult, and ultimately successful project to
decontaminate 100,000 cubic meters of soil and sediment.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Defense worked closely with USAID to overcome
many obstacles to complete the project, and in doing so they helped advance
relations between our two countries to a higher level. Like the MIA and UXO
issues before it, Agent Orange evolved from a subject of anger and
resentment, to one of cooperation and appreciation.

For four decades, the Da Nang Airport was a health hazard to thousands of
people living nearby. A little over a year ago, the APEC Summit was held
there. Soon after that, a U.S. aircraft carrier docked at Da Nang, and
sailors visited an orphanage for children who may have inherited their
disabilities from parents or grandparents who were exposed to Agent Orange.
[image: Se. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., center in gray suit, takes part in the
inaugural ceremony in 2014 for the first of the Leahy-led Agent Orange
(dioxin) remediation projects in Vietnam. Rep. Peter Welch is third from
left.]

Se. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., center in gray suit, takes part in the inaugural
ceremony in 2014 for the first of the Leahy-led Agent Orange (dioxin)
remediation projects in Vietnam. Rep. Peter Welch is third from left. (Photo:
Courtesy of Sen. Leahy's Office)

None of this would have happened were it not for the perseverance and
cooperation of our two governments.

Throughout this period, USAID also expanded health and disability programs
to seven Vietnamese provinces. They provide medical, rehabilitation,
infrastructure, and social assistance to severely disabled Vietnamese in
areas that were heavily sprayed with Agent Orange or contaminated with
dioxin.

On April 17 I will arrive in Vietnam for the third time, accompanied by
eight senators of both political parties. This time we will travel to the
Bien Hoa Air Base near Ho Chi Minh City, which was the largest U.S.
military base in Vietnam during the war.

Along with U.S. Embassy and Vietnamese officials, we will inaugurate the
remediation project at Bien Hoa, the largest remaining hotspot of dioxin
contamination. This will be one of the largest environmental remediation
projects in the world.

At the same time, we will witness the signing of an agreement between the
United States and Vietnam, spelling out a new 5-year commitment to support
health and disabilities programs for persons with disabilities in provinces
that were heavily sprayed with Agent Orange.

The benefits of this humanitarian cooperation have been far-reaching:

It has reunited the remains of U.S. soldiers with their loved ones;

It has enabled many people in Vietnam who lost their mobility to become
mobile again;

It has helped Vietnamese families and communities to care for the disabled;

We are getting rid of the dioxin; and

We have begun to help Vietnam identify the remains of Vietnamese MIAs.

Just as important, this cooperation has been the foundation of a growing
partnership. While our two governments have disagreements on important
issues, we share many interests: from increasing student exchanges, to
expanding trade relations, to combating climate change.

Our partnership with the Ministry of Defense, and the active support and
engagement of the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of
State in these humanitarian efforts, have opened up new opportunities for
cooperation on regional security issues, today and in the future.

We cannot escape the fact that the war was a disaster for generations of
Vietnamese and Americans.  Each of us who lived through that period has our
own memories, our own emotions, our own opinions.

For me, there can be no excusing the folly of that war, nor diminishing of
the immense destruction and suffering that it caused.

But we can all be proud of the way our two countries have worked to
overcome that tragic legacy.  We have come a long way, and we have further
to go.

*Patrick Leahy is Vermont’s senior U.S. senator and is heading the official
bipartisan delegation of nine senators that this week is visiting Vietnam
and the DMZ in South Korea. *
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