Agent Orange contained dioxin—known to produce cancer, deformities, mental retardation, and organ dysfunction. Washington sprayed millions of gallons of the poison over Vietnam from 1962 to 1971, claiming it was trying to destroy vegetation that could feed or hide liberation fighters opposed to the U.S. invasion. The Vietnamese national liberation army ultimately defeated the U.S. aggressors.

The suit charged that companies like Dow and Monsanto, by producing the poison, committed war crimes and violated international law. The plaintiffs demanded compensation for Agent Orange victims.

U.S. judge Jack Weinstein ruled March 10 that Agent Orange could not be labeled a poison under international rules of war, despite the effects it may have had in Vietnam. He also ruled that the plaintiffs were unable to prove the chemical had caused their illnesses.

The plaintiffs’ attorneys said they would appeal the ruling.

The chemical monopolies named in the suit were delighted with Weinstein’s ruling. “We’ve said all along that any issues regarding wartime activities should be resolved by the U.S. and Vietnamese governments,” said Dow Chemical spokesman Scot Wheeler. “We believe that defoliants saved lives by protecting allied forces from enemy ambush and did not create adverse health effects.”

The U.S. government also filed a brief in support of the chemical giants’ motion to dismiss the case.

In Vietnam, Nguyen Trong Nhan, vice president of the Association of Victims of Agent Orange, told the Reuters news agency that “We will pursue the suit until justice is done.”

BBC News interviewed plaintiff and former liberation fighter Nguyen Van Quy, who has liver and stomach cancer and whose two children are disabled. “I’ll fight,” Quy said, “not just for myself, but for millions of Vietnamese victims. Those who produced these toxic chemicals must take responsibility for their action.”

“If the medical files [of Vietnamese victims] are not convincing enough, we will use the ones of the American soldiers,” Ngo Thanh Nhan, a Vietnamese activist in the lawsuit, told BBC. “There’s no reason why those who sprayed chemical products got compensation for their contamination…and the direct victims’ suit is rejected by an American court.”

In 1984, U.S. GIs poisoned by Agent Orange in Vietnam won a $180 million settlement from the same chemical companies charged in the current lawsuit. Jack Weinstein was the judge in that case too.
 
 
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