US starts landmark Agent Orange cleanup in Vietnam

[douglas9]

DANANG, Vietnam — The United States on Thursday began a landmark project to clean up a dangerous chemical left from the defoliant Agent Orange — 50 years after it was first sprayed by American planes on Vietnam’s jungles to destroy enemy cover.

Dioxin, which has been linked to cancer, birth defects and other disabilities, will be removed from the site of a former U.S. air base in Danang in central Vietnam. The effort is seen as a long-overdue step toward removing a thorn in relations between the former foes nearly four decades after the Vietnam War ended.

“We are both moving earth and taking the first steps to bury the legacies of our past,” U.S. Ambassador David Shear said during the groundbreaking ceremony near the area where a rusty barbed wire fence marks the site’s boundary. “I look forward to even more success to follow.”

The $43 million joint project with Vietnam is expected to be completed in four years on the 19-hectare (47-acre) contaminated site, located near Danang’s commercial airport and an active Vietnamese military base.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/us-starts-landmark-cleanup-of-agent-orange-nearly-4-decades-after-vietnam-wars-end/2012/08/09/3bfc819a-e1d7-11e1-89f7-76e23a982d06_story.html

[era veteran]

1. Fuck Monsanto