Episode Details

George Black, guest author, describes how, in the late 1990s, the Canadian organization Hatfield Associates collaborated with the Vietnamese 1080 Committee to conduct a comprehensive study of dioxin contamination. They chose the A Shau Valley as a study site because its lack of industrialization proved that any dioxin found must have originated from Agent Orange. The study revealed that while dioxin had degraded in most soil, it remained highly concentrated in hotspots around old US military bases where chemicals were stored or leaked. These hotspots, such as the airbases at Da Nang and Bien Hoa, allowed dioxin to enter the food chain through fish and ducks. Most tragically, the study mapped how dioxin was passed from mothers to infants through breast milk. These findings made the truth of the contamination impossible to evade, though it still took several years for the first US aid to arrive. Additionally, Susan Hammond began investigating the "deep secret" of herbicide use in Laos, mapping patterns of disability in villages along former flight paths. Her work eventually led to the first-ever humanitarian aid program for Lao victims of Agent Orange in 2023. The Long Reckoning (7)