Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society
HOI HUU NGHI ANH-VIET NAM

3rd June 2000

President. W. Clinton
White House
Washington.
DC USA

Twenty five years on from the end of America's war on Vietnam, there are ONE MILLION VICTIMS OF AGENT ORANGE and 270,000 Vietnamese Missing in Action.

Dear Mr President,

In a few months time you will be standing down from the office of President of the United States of America, economically and militarily the strongest nation in the world today. Many, including yourself; will reflect on your period of office to assess what mark you have left to history.

In your eight years as President you have introduced many policies some negative some positive. Before you leave the White House I would hope you will take a decision that will positively mark your place in history. Please, acknowledge the terrible legacy your country has left to the people and land of Vietnam through its use of the chemical developed and produced by American companies known as Agent Orange.

You took a small step along this road on the 28th May 1996, when in the White House, you became the first U.S. President to admit the damage and I quote: "unintentionally caused its own sons and daughters by exposing them to Agent Orange". It was unfortunate that you made no mention of the damage caused to the sons and daughters of Vietnam and their land.

On 30th April this year 2000, I celebrated along with millions of Vietnamese and their friends in many lands, the 25th anniversary of the liberation and reunification of their country. It was a great occasion made even more welcome by the many thousands of people from other countries - including America - who had come to Vietnam to join in the commemoration.

As in my visit of 98, I travelled to a number of provinces, and met with many people of all ages, affected by and suffering from disabilities be it a loss of a limb - a legacy of the bombs, shells, cluster bomblets, still in the ground. In the province of Quang Tn alone, 700 are killed and injured each year as a result of these weapons used 25 years ago - and from the effects of Agent Orange.

The number of victims of Agent Orange has now reached one million, one in seventy eight of the population. Mr President, thats a terrible legacy for any country to leave another.

In the photos I have attached, you can see what I call the innocents, they were born after the war ended in 1975. They are suffering, through no fault of their own. Just as the children of the American forces who served in Vietnam are also suffering. But at least you have made amends to them, by agreeing to pay compensation.

During my visit to Quang Tri, I went to the district of Cam Lo, I saw the two children of a soldier, one of whose arms are tied to her body 24 hours a day, to prevent her beating her head and face, shes just eight years of age.

In Hanoi I met another soldier born in 1958 and who servedin Tay Ninh province from 1982 to 85, an area heavily sprayed with Agent Orange. I met one of his two sons, born 1995, he is suffering from Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma. an illness defined by your own National Academy of Sciences as being one of a number of illnesses associated with exposure to herbicide Agent Orange.

On the way to the northern town of Tuyen Quang, we called at the village of An Khang and met with a veteran, Le Quang Vinh. He served in Laos from 1971 to 75. With him were four of his six children. All the four I saw had disabilities. The eldest a young man of 25 is and will be confined to his wheelchair for the rest of his life. His younger brother (10) was eager to show me how after two years of therapy at the Nearby Huong Sen Centre, he can walk - stiffly and slowly though it was - across the room of his house, eight paces for the young lad. His smile and effort brought a round of applause from all present.

The youngest daughter (eight) was by the window, her disability was shown to us, it was clearly Spina Bifida, another illness defined by the National Academy of Sciences as evidence of association from exposure from Agent Orange.

At the end of our visit, the young son was carried, by his elder sister who had come in from school, to one of our cars and went with us to the Huong Sen Centre. Here were some 28 youngsters having their lunch, many were in wheelchairs, and due to their disability, being fed by young people, volunteers, who come to the centre to help out at mealtimes and during the day.

Some of the children stay as boarders at the centre, other come on a daily basis for their meals, treatment and exercises, like the young lad for his therapy.

Mr President, for some victims - remember there are now one million - there is hope that some treatment will help. For the overwhelming majority, the best one can do is to see that the rest of their lives - be it months or years - be made as comfortable as possible for the victims themselves as well as for their parents. One of their concerns is "What happens to my son(s), daughter(s) when I'm not here?".

These are just a few examples I saw during my visit of the legacy America has left Vietnam.

Mr President, there is still time for you to act before you hand over the reins of Presidential office. Time for you to act on behalf of the American people to accept responsibility for the suffering caused to the people of Vietnam as you did on May 28th 1996 for the suffering Agent Orange caused to the American forces.

Despite the comments and statements by Madeleine Albright, your Secretary of State and Pete Peterson, the American Ambassador to Vietnam, denying Agent Orange as the cause and calling for more research, this a year after your statement admitting the damage caused by Agent Orange., the evidence is there, researched and published by the American National Academy of Sciences. Other international organisations have also carried out research some of their research carried out in Vietnam itself.

If you need more evidence, carry out further research, but in the meantime what happens to the victims in Vietnam today? Many thousands have died before and since your statement in 1996. How many more must die, how many will continue to live their wretched lives before the American Government accepts and faces up to their responsibility and compensation is paid to the Vietnamese victims as you said it will be paid to the American victims.

Take this final step, leave the Vhite House as the President that accepted and made amends for the terrible legacy it left to the people of another country. When you speak to the Vietnamese people on this issue, and that of their sons and daughters whose bodies are still to be found 25 years after (270,000), they will tell you. We feel no anger and want to go forward, but we cannot, and will not forget our past.

This feeling could be seen, as in addition to celebrating the 30th April, the cemeteries of the war dead were being visited by the relatives of those who made the final sacrifice.

Let me end with the comment of an American friend who served in Vietnam and took part in the spraying of Agent Orange, "Len, You've seen only the aftermath; I've seen the war in progress and the aftermath; the two together are overwhelming to me".

Looking forward to your reply.

Yours sincerely,

Len Aldis.
Secretary Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society.