Supreme Court turns down Agent Orange appeals from Vietnamese, US veterans

The Supreme Court has turned down American and Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange who wanted to pursue lawsuits against companies that made the toxic chemical defoliant used in the Vietnam War.

The justices offer no comment on their action Monday, rejecting appeals in three separate cases, in favor of Dow Chemical, Monsanto and other companies that made Agent Orange and other herbicides used by the military in Vietnam.

Agent Orange has been linked to cancer, diabetes and birth defects among Vietnamese soldiers and civilians and American veterans.

The American plaintiffs blame their cancer on exposure to Agent Orange during the military service in Vietnam. The Vietnamese said the U.S.' sustained program to prevent the enemy from using vegetation for cover and sustenance caused miscarriages, birth defects, breast cancer, ovarian tumors, lung cancer, Hodgkin's disease and prostate tumors.

All three cases had been dismissed by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York.

The appeals court said that lawsuit brought by the Vietnamese plaintiffs could not go forward because Agent Orange was used to protect U.S. troops against ambush and not as a weapon of war against human populations.

The other two suits were filed by U.S. veterans who got sick too late to claim a piece of the $180 million settlement with makers of the chemical in 1984. In 2006, the Supreme Court deadlocked 4-4 on whether those lawsuits could proceed.

That is sad, because the New Zealand Government last year finally decided to compensate our Vietnam veterans for damages done to them from Agent Orange, as they were serving under the Queen’s Command at the time they were injured.

It had been a long and difficult struggle for our Veterans, as successive governments had denied liability, and were very creative about dodging their responsibilities.

I can only hope that the US Veterans have better luck, and suggest that they contact their New Zealand counterparts to see if there are any strategies that worked over here that might work in their case over there.

If nothing else, a precident was set for awarding damages for Agent Orange in New Zealand...

(They would want to contact the Returned Services Association Head Offices in Wellington NZ)

“It had been a long and difficult struggle for our Veterans, as successive governments had denied liability, and were very creative about dodging their responsibilities.”

If you have any of the illnesses caused by Agent Orange you can make a claim with the Veterans Administration and get disability pay for life. I know of two Veterans with the specific diabetes related to Agent Orange who are both getting about 60% disability payments from the VA.

“He was wounded and nearly deafened from a mortar shell exploding at close range but the military says he doesn’t deserve compensation.”

Has he tried going to any of the outreach Vietnam Veterans group who help Veterans get compensation? I was offered hearing aids for life due to hearing loss from Vietnam service. I turned them down because I wanted higher end hearing aids, but they will provide them if you want them.

And they spat on us, called us murderers, treated us like criminals, even fought against building a Wall in memory of over 58,000 of our fallen brothers.

Then they said, “We Will Never Forget”... but they did.

Yet even today, they continue to fight against the support of our brave Troops in harms way. Even the politicians have called our Troops murderers, “in cold blood”.

The traitors within our own country, have caused the War on Terror to last longer than it needed to, get more of our Troops killed, and attempted to undermine their mission on a daily basis.

Now, some shout, “We will remember your sacrifice”. Will they really remember? NO... they will not.

Our Troops then, and our Troops now, have fought and died for an Ungrateful Nation. Eventually, the cowards of our country are going to have to pay dearly for what they have done.. if it happens while I am still alive, I will laugh at their blood curdling screams.

I have a brother, a sibling, that slowly and painfully died resulting from that crap. He was a Ranger with the 101st, Airborne, Screaming Eagles, and he served 2 tours in that hellhole.

He was rewarded with decades of suffering and he finnaly lost the fight about 5 years ago. He has a surviving daughter that serves in our military today. She won’t be remembered either. The gutless and corrupt leaders will now give lip service, but I don’t for a single second think they are grateful.

I Will Never Forget, their service and sacrifice, and I will likewise never forget the two-faced cowards of this country.

Sorry for the rant... I am done with this.

> Sorry for the rant... I am done with this.

Please don’t be sorry for the rant: I am honored that you have seen fit to share that with us via my post. When I was a kid, Vietnam soldiers were my heroes. I guess they still are.

I am grateful for your Service, and for the Service of your late brother. May I take this opportunity to publicly salute you both, and your courageous brothers-in-arms, and thank you for your sacrifice. While some are demonstrably ungrateful: they ought to be ashamed. Yet not all of us are ungrateful: not by a very, very long shot.

They shall not grow old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn. At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, we will remember them.

God bless you all.

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