CENSORED IN 1991:

“JUSTICE” AND THE TRIALS OF AMERICA’S AGENT ORANGE VETS

For the second time in the past decade, Vietnam veterans and the families of deceased vets have brought a class-action suit against the manufacturers of the lethal herbicide Agent Orange.

Hoping to hold the defense contractors that produced Agent Orange accountable for causing their health woes, veterans and their families have filed a class-action suit, Shirley Ivy et. al. v. Diamond Shamrock Chemical Co., et. al. But the U.S. federal courts and six defendant chemical companies, among them Dow, Monsanto, Uniroyal and Diamond Shamrock, have managed to stifle every initiative the vets have taken.

The unholy union of courts and contractors is nothing new to the veterans. The first suit ended abruptly in the Brooklyn courtroom of U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein. The judge told the vets’ attorneys, whom he had appointed, that their evidence was weak and urged them to take what they could get. Weinstein also intimated that the attorneys might be held personally liable if they did not settle.

Some veterans chose not to cooperate with the settlement and opted to sue independently of the class-action. But not one of their cases survived Judge Weinstein.

This story appeared in the July/August 1991 issue of the Multinational Monitor and was cited as the #20 censored story of 1991.

　

REPORTED IN 2010;

VA PUBLISHES FINAL REGULATION TO AID VETERANS EXPOSED TO AGENT ORANGE

The Department of Veteran Affairs reported on August 31, 2010, that “Veterans exposed to herbicides while serving in Vietnam and other areas will have an easier path to access quality healthcare and qualify for disability compensation under a final regulation that was published Wednesday in the Federal Register by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).”

Those who cannot remember the past

are condemned to repeat it!

-George Santayana

September 21, 2010  
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