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The Desserts of War
American-born David Kos immigrated to Canada in 1971 and became a Canadian citizen in 1980. He has taught English literature in the United States, Canada, Nigeria, China, Thailand and Japan - but it was during two teaching stints in Vietnam at Can Tho University in the Mekong Delta that he became incensed at the Agent Orange-related suffering he saw in a local children's hospital - one particular child had been born without an anus. Haunted by the memories he returned home to write The Desserts of War in an impassioned surge of sustained creative effort. In a brief factual postscript to the book (copy attached to this Press Release) he outlines the tragic facts about Vietnam and Agent Orange: three million civilian Vietnamese victims; more than 100,000 deformed children and a recent miserly American offer to provide $3 million dollars aid without any admission of guilt or responsibility -- while some 10,000 American war veterans are receiving disability benefits for their exposure to the chemical.
AUTHOR'S POSTSCRIPT
For ten long, war-torn years between 1962 and 1971 the United States sprayed up to 90 million litres or 23 million gallons of Agent Orange defoliant over Vietnam's jungles and countryside in 'Operation Ranch Hand.' The key Agent Orange dioxin is one of the most toxic chemicals ever produced and the campaign's purpose was to destroy the natural ground cover of trees and undergrowth, thereby exposing enemy Viet Cong fighters to American bombs.
But tragically it did much more than defoliate the jungles because the dioxin also poisoned the soil and water. Consequently peasant villagers, including women, children, and the elderly, became innocent victims and three million Vietnamese have suffered serious health problems. The unborn were, and are, especially vulnerable. According to the International Red Cross, more than 100,000 babies have been born deformed, physically and emotionally, because their mothers drank the water and ate the meat, fish and rice that had been contaminated by Agent Orange.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the United States insisted that there was no evidence linking Agent Orange to serious health problems, including birth deformities. American corporations, specifically Dow Chemical and Monsanto, also denied any liability, claiming that they were ordered by the Pentagon to manufacture Agent Orange in patriotic support of the war.
U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have both visited Vietnam, promising funding for scientific research, but nothing by way of monetary compensation is so far being provided to the Vietnamese victims. In fact, in 2005 the U.S. Federal Court ruled that the use of Agent Orange, although toxic, did not fit into the definition of 'chemical warfare,' and therefore did not violate international law. On September 12, 2007, the Canadian Government finally offered compensation to its soldiers and civilians who were exposed to Agent Orange at a Canadian military base which the Americans secretly used in the 1960s with Canada's official approval to test the effectiveness of Agent Orange as a herbicide.
The U.S. Government has recently agreed to cooperate with Vietnam in an effort to contain the dioxin contamination in several Agent Orange 'hot spots.' But this was not accompanied by any apology which would have implied moral guilt and possibly triggered legal actions involving hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation. To date, the U.S. Congress has allocated a paltry $3 million to this cooperative project. In my view this is a pittance in relation to the funding required to clean up the contaminated sites in Vietnam and provide proper health care for the innocent victims - past, present and future. Nevertheless more than 10,000 U.S. war veterans are presently receiving disability benefits for serious health problems caused by their exposure to Agent Orange. This to me seems to beg the question: Is the life of an American soldier more valuable, more deserving and more precious than the life of a Vietnamese child? I felt angry and sad on discovering all this at first hand in Can Tho. That anger has not subsided with the passage of time -- and it became the mainspring for the writing of this novel.
David Kos, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia,Canada; March 2008
AUTHOR'S POSTSCRIPT
For ten long, war-torn years between 1962 and 1971 the United States sprayed up to 90 million litres or 23 million gallons of Agent Orange defoliant over Vietnam's jungles and countryside in 'Operation Ranch Hand.' The key Agent Orange dioxin is one of the most toxic chemicals ever produced and the campaign's purpose was to destroy the natural ground cover of trees and undergrowth, thereby exposing enemy Viet Cong fighters to American bombs.
But tragically it did much more than defoliate the jungles because the dioxin also poisoned the soil and water. Consequently peasant villagers, including women, children, and the elderly, became innocent victims and three million Vietnamese have suffered serious health problems. The unborn were, and are, especially vulnerable. According to the International Red Cross, more than 100,000 babies have been born deformed, physically and emotionally, because their mothers drank the water and ate the meat, fish and rice that had been contaminated by Agent Orange.
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s the United States insisted that there was no evidence linking Agent Orange to serious health problems, including birth deformities. American corporations, specifically Dow Chemical and Monsanto, also denied any liability, claiming that they were ordered by the Pentagon to manufacture Agent Orange in patriotic support of the war.
U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have both visited Vietnam, promising funding for scientific research, but nothing by way of monetary compensation is so far being provided to the Vietnamese victims. In fact, in 2005 the U.S. Federal Court ruled that the use of Agent Orange, although toxic, did not fit into the definition of 'chemical warfare,' and therefore did not violate international law. On September 12, 2007, the Canadian Government finally offered compensation to its soldiers and civilians who were exposed to Agent Orange at a Canadian military base which the Americans secretly used in the 1960s with Canada's official approval to test the effectiveness of Agent Orange as a herbicide.
The U.S. Government has recently agreed to cooperate with Vietnam in an effort to contain the dioxin contamination in several Agent Orange 'hot spots.' But this was not accompanied by any apology which would have implied moral guilt and possibly triggered legal actions involving hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation. To date, the U.S. Congress has allocated a paltry $3 million to this cooperative project. In my view this is a pittance in relation to the funding required to clean up the contaminated sites in Vietnam and provide proper health care for the innocent victims - past, present and future. Nevertheless more than 10,000 U.S. war veterans are presently receiving disability benefits for serious health problems caused by their exposure to Agent Orange. This to me seems to beg the question: Is the life of an American soldier more valuable, more deserving and more precious than the life of a Vietnamese child? I felt angry and sad on discovering all this at first hand in Can Tho. That anger has not subsided with the passage of time -- and it became the mainspring for the writing of this novel.
David Kos, Salt Spring Island, British Columbia,Canada; March 2008
Submitted on February 5, 2012 in By David.
