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HDNet World Report Investigates the Devastating Effects of Agent Orange 30 Years After the Vietnam War

Posted on: Tuesday, 24 February 2009, 11:39 CST

'Vietnam's Lingering Ghost: Facing the Legacy of Agent Orange' airs on HDNet Tuesday, March 3 at 9:00 p.m. ET

DALLAS, Feb. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- HDNet World Report, HDNet's award-winning weekly news program, presents a dramatic report exposing the ghost that the United States left behind when our troops left Vietnam - Agent Orange. The program reveals important new developments, including the fact that the American government may finally be accepting some responsibility for the devastation.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080324/HDNETLOGO)

Agent Orange was an herbicide sprayed during the Vietnam War, named for the color-coded barrels in which it was stored. American aircraft dropped more than twenty million gallons of herbicides, mostly Agent Orange, over large portions of the country's jungles, in concentrations up to fifty times what the manufacturers suggested to kill plants.

However, it wasn't just bad for the trees. That's because a byproduct of Agent Orange is dioxin, one of the world's most toxic chemicals. Many Vietnamese people breathed it, others drank from water sources contaminated by it.

The issue, and the challenge for the U.S. and Vietnam, is that it might still be contaminating people in Vietnam to this day.

HDNet World Report Correspondent Greg Dobbs traveled to Vietnam for a report that reveals hundreds of people - especially children born years after the War - who suffer from grotesque, debilitating deformities, mental retardation and cancer.

Many Vietnamese people believe that these devastating disabilities are a direct result of the U.S. use of Agent Orange.

Dr. Nguyen Trong Nhan, former Minister of Health in Vietnam, tells Dobbs, " ... for the people that have committed that crime, of course, it's very difficult to accept something that's your fault."

However, not everyone is convinced that Agent Orange (or dioxin) is the only cause of this devastation in Vietnam.

"We still don't have accurate scientific data about exactly what the health effects are of dioxin and how it affects things and what the causes are," says Michael Michalak, the U.S. Ambassador to Vietnam.

But the United States appears to be slowly owning up to its responsibility to clean up what it left behind. It has provided over three million dollars in humanitarian aid to Vietnam to help clean up Agent Orange hot spots; however, many Vietnamese people believe that this is not nearly enough. They believe that a true clean-up of the chemical left behind would cost nearly sixty million dollars.

Vietnam is becoming an important economic and strategic partner to the United States. The question is, should the U.S. be doing more to help the children who are still suffering from the legacy of the Vietnam War?

"HDNet World Report - Vietnam's Lingering Ghost: Facing the Legacy of Agent Orange" premieres on HDNet, Tuesday, March 3 at 9:00 p.m. ET with a re-air midnight ET to accommodate West Coast Prime Time.

About HDNet

HDNet (www.hd.net) is a network that is original, thinks independently and delivers unique content and provocative, authentic programming that appeals to men of all ages, delivered in true high definition.

HDNet is the exclusive, high definition home for popular, original programming, including television's only HD news feature programs "HDNet World Report," and the Emmy Award winning "Dan Rather Reports," featuring legendary journalist Dan Rather. Only HDNet goes beyond the headlines to deliver real news that is redefining the way we look at our world. HDNet News is provocative, sometimes controversial and always relevant - telling the important stories of our time in-depth, with attitude and with independence.

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Upcoming Sneak Previews include "The Great Buck Howard," starring Colin Hanks, John Malkovich and Tom Hanks, and "Harlem Aria," starring Damon Wayans.

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SOURCE HDNet

Source: PR Newswire

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