New Zealand to apologise to Vietnam vets for Agent Orange

[Judi Lynn]

New Zealand to apologise to Vietnam vets for Agent Orange
Jul 11, 2005, 7:09 GMT

Wellington - Forty years after the first New Zealand troops were sent to support United States forces in the Vietnam War, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced Monday she would formally apologise for their exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange.

She said the country's Vietnam veterans had suffered "a great deal of hurt and resentment" about how New Zealand viewed their service in the controversial war and their sense of grievance had been heightened by the failure of successive governments to acknowledge that they had been exposed to toxic chemicals.

Clark announced the appointment of a working group to hold a series of consultations with the vets to discover what impact Agent Orange, which was widely sprayed on the Vietnamese jungle to deny cover to communist guerrillas, had on their health and that of their families.

Following this, she would offer a formal apology, she told an ex-soldiers meeting in Wellington.
(snip/...)

http://news.monstersandcritics.com/asiapacific/article_1032827.php/New_Zealand_to_apologise_to_Vietnam_vets_for_Agent_Orange



Prime Minister
Helen Clark

[roguevalley]

1. I would offfer this to my cousin Ross but he's been dead for about

ten years. Agent Orange gave him bone cancer. He died in agony and for a man six feet six inches tall, weighed about 90 pounds.

I love you, New Zealand. I hope you never get sucked into evil again. By the way, I love your PM.

[Briar]

2. I'd like to see someone apologise

to the Vietnamese.

[Karmakaze]

3. If anyone will, Helen will..

The main reason there has been such a delay recognising Agent Orange survivors has been the liability issues - the government knew that it could cost an abosolute fortune to repay Vets and their families. Adding the Vietnamese to that equation would be even more expensive.

Hopefully Ms Clark will indeed extend the apology to the Vietnamese people, but I don't think we could ever adequately compensate even our own vets, let alone the Vietnamese.

[Massachusetts]

4. To little to late!

"series of consultations with the vets to discover what impact Agent Orange"

The GENES of most of these men have already been PASSED down.

[stickdog]

5. Fit her with a tinfoil hat!

Everyone knows Agent Orange is just some nutjob conspiracy theory!

Right?