<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">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. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">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. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif">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 <i>closure.</i> With continued funding and leadership based on our strong partnership, many of us believe that this goal can be achieved within another decade.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </p>
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Email <span class="gmail-apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="mailto:chuckusvn@gmail.com" target="_blank" style="color:blue"><span style="color:rgb(116,27,71);text-decoration-line:none">chuckusvn@gmail.com</span></a></span></i></b></span><span style="font-size:7.5pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif;color:black"></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-image:initial;background-position:initial;background-size:initial;background-repeat:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;margin:0in 0in 0.0001pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif"> </p></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:verdana,sans-serif"><h1 class="gmail-asset-headline gmail-speakable-headline" style="color:rgb(51,51,51);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;line-height:34px;font-family:helvetica,arial,sans-serif;margin:0px;padding:15px 0px 0px 70px"><font size="4"><a href="https://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/opinion/2019/04/16/patrick-leahy-war-legacies-and-expanding-u-s-vietnam-partnership/3487473002/">Burlington Free Press</a></font></h1><h1 class="gmail-asset-headline gmail-speakable-headline" style="font-size:32px;color:rgb(51,51,51);font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;line-height:34px;font-family:helvetica,arial,sans-serif;margin:0px;padding:15px 0px 0px 70px">Patrick Leahy: War legacies and the expanding U.S.-Vietnam partnership</h1><div class="gmail-asset-metabar" style="border:1px solid rgb(230,230,230);border-radius:3px;margin:20px 0px 23px 70px;width:878px"><span class="gmail-asset-metabar-author gmail-asset-metabar-item" style="display:inline-block;font-size:12px;font-weight:700;line-height:14px;margin:6px 0px 5px;padding:2px 10px">Sen. Patrick Leahy</span><span class="gmail-asset-metabar-time gmail-asset-metabar-item gmail-nobyline" style="display:inline-block;font-size:12px;line-height:14px;margin:6px 0px 5px;padding:2px 10px;border:0px;color:rgb(153,153,153)">Published 4:36 p.m. ET April 16, 2019</span></div><div class="gmail-asset-double-wide gmail-double-wide gmail-p402_premium" style="float:left;margin-left:10px;width:600px;margin-bottom:20px;font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:16px"><div id="gmail-module-position-Rt39xGzi0Pg" class="gmail-story-asset gmail-story-metadata-asset"></div><div id="gmail-module-position-Rt39xGyVFP8" class="gmail-story-asset gmail-inline-share-tools-asset"></div><div id="gmail-module-position-Rt39xGzqWSQ" class="gmail-story-asset gmail-image-asset"><img src="https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/04/16/PBUR/5071f249-86a2-43a2-8551-68744e5c4a93-01.jpg?width=180&height=240&fit=bounds&auto=webp" alt="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." width="180" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; max-width: 100%;"><p style="margin:6px 0px 0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-weight:700;font-stretch:normal;font-size:11px;line-height:16px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(100,100,100);padding:0px 5px 0px 0px">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. <span class="gmail-credit" style="font-style:italic;font-weight:400">(Photo: Courtesy of Sen. Leahy's Office)</span></p></div><p class="gmail-speakable-p-1 gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.</p><p class="gmail-speakable-p-2 gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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. </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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. </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.</p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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. </p><div id="gmail-module-position-Rt39xGzoaVE" class="gmail-story-asset gmail-image-asset"><img src="https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/04/16/PBUR/88d94838-6b34-46ee-9208-d760cda844de-DSC_0309_002.jpg?width=540&height=&fit=bounds&auto=webp" alt="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." width="540" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; max-width: 100%;"><p style="margin:6px 0px 0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-weight:700;font-stretch:normal;font-size:11px;line-height:16px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(100,100,100);padding:0px 5px 0px 0px">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. <span class="gmail-credit" style="font-style:italic;font-weight:400">(Photo: Courtesy of Sen. Leahy's Office)</span></p><div class="gmail-clearfix"></div></div><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.</p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.</p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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. </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.</p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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. </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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. </p><div id="gmail-module-position-Rt39xGzodeQ" class="gmail-story-asset gmail-image-asset"><img src="https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/04/16/PBUR/d5a33440-0fc3-4459-bfca-dd1054127762-IMG-20140419-00091_002.jpg?width=540&height=&fit=bounds&auto=webp" alt="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." width="540" style="border: 0px; vertical-align: middle; max-width: 100%;"><p style="margin:6px 0px 0px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-weight:700;font-stretch:normal;font-size:11px;line-height:16px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(100,100,100);padding:0px 5px 0px 0px">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. <span class="gmail-credit" style="font-style:italic;font-weight:400">(Photo: Courtesy of Sen. Leahy's Office)</span></p><div class="gmail-clearfix"></div></div><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">None of this would have happened were it not for the perseverance and cooperation of our two governments. </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.</p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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. </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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. </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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.</p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">The benefits of this humanitarian cooperation have been far-reaching: </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">It has reunited the remains of U.S. soldiers with their loved ones; </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">It has enabled many people in Vietnam who lost their mobility to become mobile again; </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">It has helped Vietnamese families and communities to care for the disabled; </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">We are getting rid of the dioxin; and</p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">We have begun to help Vietnam identify the remains of Vietnamese MIAs. </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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. </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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. </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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. </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">For me, there can be no excusing the folly of that war, nor diminishing of the immense destruction and suffering that it caused. </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)">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. </p><p class="gmail-p-text" style="margin:0px 0px 15px 60px;font-variant-numeric:normal;font-variant-east-asian:normal;font-stretch:normal;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;font-family:arial,sans-serif;color:rgb(51,51,51)"><em>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. </em></p></div></div><div><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature" data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr">
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