then we have a great candlelight march this evening to the white house. i want to introduce the moderator of this first panel, this is a panel about agent orange. it's not a panel about the history, it is a panel about today. a panel about the continuing legacy of the destruction, they're suffering that our military created because some folks in the pentagon, supported by folks in the white house, came up with the idea that they were going to win this war through the use of chemical weapons and when i heard the excuse for the invasion of iraq because saddam hussein was using chemical weapons and how simply horrendous that was, i'm talking, who's talking? so i wanted to introduce a longtime writer for the washington post, an important writer in her own right of the hunted generation, and her prize winning book, all governments lie. i want to leave it there because no one can introduce her better than her south. thank you. we are so pleased to have you with us well, i hope all of you like the title, all governments lie. because i have to fight tooth and nail to get the publishing house to use it. on one level, it is the story, the biography of a hero to many in the end, and i hope here, and three weeks after london be johnson used it as an excuse to escalate the war. and he, being a leftist was not appreciated by mainstream journalism. i am very critical of mainstream journalism throughout that period, and not only that period but the weapons of mass destruction which got us into another horrible war. both of those books had meaning. the first book was the first to describe the problems of ptsd, following lift and's work, and was on public consumption. my reason for wanting to be here with this wonderful panel is that, later i went to vietnam and met with chuck slushy and all of these wonderful vietnam veterans against the war who went back to work full-time with the problems of agent orange and the problems of unexploded land mines and the people terribly affected by it. it was a game-changer for me, and when i came back, i was surprised to find people looking in awe when i said there were second generation agent orange victims. then now fourth generation. the atmosphere, the absolute lies, they stonewalling on what agent orange did, they neglect of what was happening with bombs that are still exploding, you see this beautiful country and it is hard to believe that all of this is still happening. we have some wonderful people on this panel, and on the next panel who will bring this home to give. i have the honor of first introducing either browser. her father served and the united states army from 1968 to 1969. when he was home, he became unwell at a very young age, and then died of an illness connected to his exposure to agent orange. i thought it was born two months premature with multiple birth defects. her mother and father were early agent orange activists, and she has continued her parents work. she is a founder of children a vietnam veterans health alliance, and advocacy group for the offspring of vietnam veterans. she has travel to vietnam to build connections with those women affected there by the u.s. governments use of dioxin layton herbicides. either has a masters degree in community mental health, and she is in private practice as a clinical counselor in, diagnosing and treating mental disorders. i want to introduce one person individually, so you can remember them better. >> thank you very much, and thank you for having me here, this is an amazing experience to bring together the work of the past, the work of the now and the work that has been left to do for all generations affected by war. i want to thank every single one of you for your time being here, and i appreciate the opportunity. thank you very much. i'm here today to talk to you about my experience, because i want to tell you about the fact that, when we are activists we have to continue moving on. generations are affected by your activism that you have done and the past, that you are doing now. it has taken in like a sponge by other generations, including my own. i'm now reaching 50, i'm 47 years old now, so almost 50 years after the war, i'm the daughter of vietnam veterans talking about the same thing my parents were talking about the same when the word about agent orange started to come along. i hope you like my thing, ten fingers are overrated, because i don't know why you guys have those. they get in the way. let's talk a little bit about my family. my father served as, in vietnam from 1969 to 1969. that was the year that chemical, that agent orange, was most laden and dioxide, and the highest, my father served in the meanwhile province, and that was not very far from where they came in and out of. my parents married nine days before my they left from vietnam and if we have nine days together, that is what we have. that's the custom of the time, many people married before their loved one win off to vietnam. so, my father served in vietnam and came back a year later my parents decided they wanted to start a family very quickly. they want to have a large family. unfortunately, my brother had to miscarriages, and then in 1972, i was born with multiple birth defects. my parents had no idea what had happened, and i will get into what those were, with agent orange, the chemical sprayed in vietnam wasn't really talked about much, there wasn't a lot out about what agent orange was, and eventually, we started to learn that this was the chemical that many veterans was told was safe. it was just to kill the trees, just to kill the vegetation, and would not hurt humans. as we all know now, that was quite a lie, that only as we -- talk about the propaganda alliance that helped make things okay for people to stomach, but here is the truth. the lie that is propagated about agent orange was, well good thing we had it, because the enemy could have really denied cover, some glad we had it because it saved a lot of lies. but has been forgotten and a lot of the history was that agent orange began to be used to disrupt to keep the food crops from propagating, from people having food. so that is something we need to understand. it was also to kill the food supply for the enemies, and to control the population and help move people and to hamlets, and all of those things. that's something to understand. good thing we have to take care of enemy cover. agent orange, like roundup today, everybody, i will make anybody raise their hand at the use roundup, but like what people use today, it's similar to what was used in vietnam. this is what they look like and only you can prevent a forest. agent orange and probably went over. that was also a fallacy because they were told, you were on a base? the truth of the matter is they were only away from where the sprays came in and out of. they would go over my father's face every day, and were told, if they had any extra chemical in their plans to dump it in the river alongside their base. so, their milk was mixed in it, they're food, there was no getting away from exposure. so many vietnam that's have a foul to that they were not exposed, if they were not. they always talk about them making barrels. let's make a few barbecues, let's have a barbecue. >> so i was born in 1962. my mother had had to miscarriages with, only three pounds, four ounces when i was born. my father used to love that he could drag and told me like this, and it's big hands. he said you were so small my mother was born without birth defects. i missing my right leg below the knee, and several of my fingers. and i beto on my left foot. my remaining pills were wept. there were no ultrasounds, sauna grounds, nothing like that was done at the time, so i was kind of like, a world, here i come. my mother mentions that she went into labor early, she was terrified because she had had to miscarriages previously, and she went to the hospital. the nurses said, you are barely even pregnant. she says no, i think i'm a neighbor. they found out, they got her propped, she got to the room she heard oh my god, and she woke up to my father at bedside they had. no idea what caused by birth defect. living in a small town in ohio, i do not have a lot of people who had parents who served, let alone having birth defects at significant as mine. i made it through school, i love school, but it was very difficult being a disabled child. my parents, my father was oh, my father was a steel worker, because he was happen to be up during the today show one morning. that morning, he came on and with being interviewed. he was a vietnam veteran, he was about 28 years old at the time. he mentioned that he was killed in vietnam and he did not even know it. my mother and father did not know what was going on. and he started to discuss agent orange. he said there was a chemical that i was exposed to that i think is causing my stomach cancer. and less than one year later, he had passed away age 28. this is the same time the mother of agent orange, who was passed, she was working in the va, she was a whistleblower. she started talking about how the vietnam veterans were talking about all these illnesses an element and were being ignored. she blew the whistle on that. these were some of my parents early activism papers. the agent orange movement was moving huge. there was lots of men and women and their families fighting. you might remember that agent orange lawsuit, the class action lawsuit that happened in the eighties. they're such a strong movement, and people were on board trying to get the veterans acknowledged and their children. however, that did not happen the agent orange lawsuit took the steam out of everything, veterans thought they were going to get help and they did not. so the movement died, and along with it came the fact that the man became sick. my father became ill and had five bypasses at his heart. it is now recognized by the va as being caused by dioxide exposure. he was denied, my father was off work and people would bring us. i'm going a little quicker even though his activism was gaining a lot of strength, unfortunately, my father moved away at age 50. he first developed a heart disease at 38, he had five bypasses and the age 40 develop diabetes. at age 48 hit a stroke at i-50 he died of a massive heart attack. we bury our mistakes. i became an activist because it was a gap. we have to fight for ourself. and 2011, i went to vietnam for the first time we met this boy, i first saw a photograph of him and i said where is he? this is the truth of agent orange. this is a humanitarian problem, not at the side, that side problem. this is human. these are humans, we are humans. we have not gone away, and we have not disappeared with the sands of time. we are still doing this every single day. and 2012, i developed a nonprofit with the help of friends to help those of us who are children of vietnam veterans because our government has turned its back on us, and if no one is able to help us, we must help each other. we do an emergency assistance program, that we try to help one another. this is my friend, john kelly, he's actually in the audience today. dallas was born without one of his arms and his left leg. his family passed away of suicide. thomas is a good friend of mine, we are still here. we might be in our forties, but we are still here. we are the children that were thrown out. we did not go away. this is my friend on the left, he absolutely blew the whistle, if you ever read that article, it was amazing. that's john tonight with a left and right foot. this is my friend who passed away from suicide after a tumor in his pituitary gland, this would not give up, and you could not be a mason anymore. he lost all of his abilities and also the va would not look at his claim. this is my friend with hip dysplasia, and she had many types of cancer. and said, have you been a pesticide worker? if you ever worked in agriculture? he said no, because it is only found in those who have been exposed to our. snuck born without her right arm, her father also passed of suicide. the guilt that our vietnam veterans feel israel, their responsibility is not the responsibility that they carry. the responsibility goes on the shoulder of the man who sat behind desks and thought this was a good idea. this is john kelly in vietnam. and i'm sorry to go quickly, this is the ban why air base where we will talk a little bit more about that. we need medical care, and medical care that we exist. we need action not, and i appreciate all of your time and i'll be happy to answer questions later. >> and it is set up the computer. just one second. >> can you hear me? okay, i'll just do it from here. that will be easier. thank you so much, that was amazing. i also would be remiss as a feminist to point out that we have an all women's panel. so this is susan, and for the past 23 years she has been at the school of professional studies. she currently teaches patient safety, but her work for this particular panel has been her continued following and providing knowledge of agent orange contamination, which includes bringing a delegation of science and public health professionals to vietnam, and presenting a paper at the international conference at age in orange in 2016. and i look forward to hearing what she has to say. >> good afternoon. i think some of you may know i also am a former navy military nurse. >> so i thought i would start by saying, and again, i was in that navy but i saw the winds of war, and what was happening, both the physical wounds at the young guys got when they were injured in southeast asia, and the ethical wounds a lot with the rest of their lives. i worked for 30 years in the public health system. i started saying there was something else that i would do, and i became involved and working with the issue of agent orange dioxin that was dropped over vietnam from 1961 to 1971. and just a reminder to everyone, as had their has so eloquently stated, war it does not stop when the gun stop shooting. that legacy from that war continues to live on in the bodies. this is another slide that dropped about 21 million gallons of herbicide, that contained around 400, 500 kilograms of dioxin. this is one of the most harmful chemicals known to human beings. this was dropped multiple times over south and central vietnam. >> this is how vietnam veterans knew what was happening in their bodies by the 1970s. either has mentioned one of the young men who developed gastric cancer. let me tell you the story about some of these. it took until the 1970s before there were any national investigations about the impact of the use of this chemical and this was not the rally, it took until the 19 eighties when there was a legal suit that has produced the agent that there was any kind of public acknowledgment that this is a real physical problem caused by these problems. legal case was settled against the chemical companies, the problem with the settlement was that there were never any open hearings in court. the public was never given information that was found through all of the secret documents that came in from multiple companies. a reminder that in 1969, there was a memo, i keep thinking was an email, it was a memo that went from the president to the president of other chemical companies that said we know that this agent is contaminated by dioxin, but we cannot let that information out because the american public will become enraged, and will have to slow down production and the american government wants us to produce it faster and more efficiently. so this knowledge was known by the chemical companies. the united states did not stop using it until 1971, and you talk about criminality? it's known today but there is not much in terms of legal terms that we could do about it. 1984 was the settlement of the first legal case against the chemical company. it took until 1991 for the united states congress to pass the agent orange act, which began studies that continue for the next 18, 20 years on agent orange and it's continuing impact on veterans that were in southeast asia. we begin with the number of illnesses that were identified, and it begins with lymphoma's, and the reason that some of this was known and recognized was because a major industrial actions in europe. so they're already was information about the harmful effects. he only took our goverment until 1991 to begin to say we may have a problem here. in 1991, the va recognized soft text to star coma, hodgkin lymphoma, and respiratory cancers. in 2002, there were studies on hypertension that showed a correlation between having served in vietnam and developing hypertension. i know what a lot of people and public health and health care say, well it's an illness that we develop as we get older. there were studies that were done then on the amy core that work working closely with this chemical, they spread it from backpacks and the studies that were gone on them by the va, and this was 2016, so it's 14 years after the initial recognition that there was a correlation between having been exposed and the impact of the chemicals and the development of high blood pressure. let me remind everybody that today, 2019, this is still not recognized by the va as being correlated with service in vietnam and development of high blood pressure. i would suggest the reason that it is not recognized it's because there are too many people involved there are three additional illnesses that have been identified by the south korean help apartment, and recognized as coalitions between the service of the south korean troops and development of three illnesses, bladder cancer, parkinson's like symptoms and high blood pressure, and hypothyroidism. those are not recognized by the va. when shelton, he said he was going to recognize these illnesses, but at some of the remember, he was fired, and to date these illnesses are still not being recognized. i know you can't read this, but it is an extraordinary gram with a cable gram to the embassy and then saigon, and the question was, there were stories about the children of vietnamese being born with birth defects. we are asking you if you have any information about this problem. we don't have an answer, but a reminder that we go back all these years and identify there was an end packed and it was being felt by the enemies. and continues today. >> what was the date? >> 1970. and for reference there is an ordinary article that highlights the various studies and production of agent orange jackson and the harmful impact of human beings and 1970, so there's no excuse for this illnesses not being recognized other than denial. once the war is over, we want to forget about it. i first went to vietnam in 2006 and met children who had been harmed by the use of the herbicide. i wanted to bring the photos today to show what this looks like. this was a young man living alone, this is an infant born with iran selfless and high atrophied limbs who, will never be okay. this is a photograph of friendship village takes away. i'd like you to please pay attention and think about how old you think the child is who was with his mother. when i first saw him, i thought he was two years old. so major impact. this young man is taken care of by his sister, the parents were impacted by the use of chemicals, they both and that health, so the care is by a sister who has given up her life to take care of it. just to mention to all of you, you may or may not be aware that there is a group and i would like to mention he is one of the founders of the organization, along with david klein that is a collaboration between our organization of american veterans in the united states social activists along with a vietnamese organization, and we are working on resolving the american war in vietnam. the legislation was introduced by representative properly last spring. for more information, she's holding up this, and we need everybody to get your representative to cosponsor this legislation. it provides for care and treatment and force studies to be done identifying those vienna means that have been injured and vietnamese americans. and an intergenerational group, to thank our from introducing the legislation. this is a photograph, but i'll just and with a science group that continues studies about the opposite and these chemicals on vietnam, it is a continuing, lasting legacy of the american war and vietnam, as it is moral injury. living with those issues and those problems and those events that we may have done and a battlefield communication that are the responsibility of this government, not of the individuals who were there. so please remember, happy to answer any questions about it. i'm told my time is up, a lot more to talk about about this issue but thank you for paying attention. >> we have another susan. this is our first so called t.e.d. talk. i promise i won't be >> susan hammond is now going to speak, and she is the daughter of a u.s. vietnam veteran, and became interested and post war asia after traveling to vietnam since 1991. then, in 1996 after getting her masters she returned to study the enemies and she stayed for 11 years. she was a deputy director of the fund for reconciliation and development until 2007. she was a tireless worker in vietnam, fostering mutual understandings and addressing the long term impact of our war there. in 2007, they support our families to continue to have to deal with the legacies, or the tragedies of our war. >> thank you. and thank you for everyone. i was the daughter -- my father was a career military man and my first memory of him is about this time. and it's going to keep going through, i went to vietnam in 1991 and it was incredibly poor. many of you know we have the embargo for 20 years after the war, and many of you in this room were very active in ending that embargo, and normalizing relations with vietnam. i came late when i started to work with jon mccaul of on this issue. but i got involved because of this trip in vietnam. i wanted to understand what it was about what to put my fire away from me from the first six years of my life. i did not get those answers on this trip, but i got the desire that i had to go back to vietnam in some way or form and to understand more about the war, but also to address the legacies left behind, including poverty from the embargo tiers. i won't go into this, but this is what vietnam looks like in 1975, complete devastation. this is what it looked like in 1986, and still did not recover. they looked booked to single species plantation of eucalyptus and other trees they used. there's a long history i could go into a getting to the point where we could get together on this issue. it took decades for the u.s. to even talk about the enemies, the most government to even talk about these problems. we had a breakthrough in 1996 and to get the u.s. to pay attention to agent orange in the first place. and then to get the u.s. and the vietnamese government but the u.s. just kept saying it was propaganda. the same thing the kids have gone through, but they finally got to the point where to governments go talk to each other. but that was because of research that was done on what hotspots were there today, that was done by the hadfield consultant of canada, and forward and tested areas of vietnam that was great to see if there is still a problem. the vietnamese were very concerned that for kind testified, they were exploring their rights, and did not want the world to know that their country was contaminated. but at these military bases, spree of which were significant hotspots and starting thanks to migrate senator, finding was put in the appropriations bill to start addressing this issue with the fate of his government to work with the government, and they began cleanup, where they were able to finally, after a ten-year cleanup costs, clean up the intimidation at that state, that's a very popular place right now. highly contaminated, this contaminating the population as well, that we are living in the surrounding areas. the education was done at this panel, finally, the u.s. has given an annual appropriations to address agent orange. i don't know why it is on repeat, but today it's been a three incident 12 billion has gone to the cleanup of the hotspots. some haven't gone to direct assistance to people who have disabilities. to get on target people with the areas who have severe disabilities like those that we saw. various ngos to provide services, it's not enough but just the beginning. i was unable where they started the opening of that. there were two republican senators, and bipartisan support to address the issues of agent orange in vietnam. particularly along the cleanup, and significantly for the first time the u.s. pentagon is putting on 15 million for the cleanup. they did not clean up in the u.s., never mind overseas. so it's a testament to the work of so many people who were doing bits and pieces, knocking on doors and journalist had a big part of this as well, writing articles about the impact in vietnam the vietnamese, who constantly reminds us that this is still a problem today, that children like heather and others, this is not a historic problem. this is a problem today that we need to do something about. to the point where, when the u.s. really hesitated to use this and a people with disabilities, but significantly when carbon sent sent the military ban intending to play for the children affected, so even if they don't state they showed it. that is what i hope, so it's not enough, and we have been working for the last 20 or so years to provide direct support to families that have been affected, and all types of forms, it can be built for someone physically disabled, many that work with us are very poor. but what happens is to have livestock, cows to help them improve their economy. surgeries, this boy has a rare disease called albert syndrome, and were able to help him get to sideline to get surgery to separate his fingers, so now he goes to schools. now he can write little things. a lot of that work is done by supported, supported by veterans and their families. this is a man who died of an illness, and his widow wanted the va benefits she receives because of his landfall want to go to vietnam. and they go every year, and maybe 20 and other friends and family contribute to. one last thing i want to say before i run out of time, which i am. we can't forget that louse was also sprayed. we talk about vietnam all the time, allows was also sprayed, particularly among the ho chi minh trail and in 1955. but that is where i am working now, to get the story about the impacts of agent orange, and also in cambodia. those areas were also heavily bombed and are the poorest places in asia. but these are two elderly people that live in the spring, and to try to get a sense of what that means. that village, they tried to leave that and live and holds that they buried. their food was destroyed by the bombings, they had to survive by living in the mountains. it is the impacts of war on people, you are ten years of starvation is going to not just cause agent orange. right now i'm in the process of trying to identify so i can go to that chart and start showing up funding for the u.s. government, and it is a difficult process. we are crossing rivers and four wheel drive and we are finding the kinds of commitments. they were also sprayed and just a few kilometers away. there was no real border between the two countries, the borders certainly did not respect that border. we are finding all types of conditions. cleft palates, a spinal befit, the same things we see in vietnam. so we are slowly getting support to these families and he could not walk. to get this boy from his image, the bus to the hospital to get to the surgery as someone who has never seen a doctor before, that is a hugely of faith. there's another young woman we saw her extremely malnourished when we first met her. she's now a teacher for women with disabilities. that is getting the resources of people, any little bit can help. so sometimes i feel very frustrated and then i wake up and think, you know, i was able, through my little bit of work, my interest in the region, help this young woman who spent her whole life, her nickname means cloth let. i've been called her cleft lip. and then she had surgery, and now she no longer has to be called cleft lip. so, thank you. >> i only met her at a party sunday, and she has already become one of the most fascinating people i have ever met. she is indomitable, intelligent, and she inspires all of us. and she is great fun to be with. she was born with both legs and using, the daughter of a mother that had been exposed. we move to the peace village, which we saw one moment of, the center for age an orange victims and ho chi minh city. one lived with 60 other children suffering from the effects, after graduating with the degree and information technology. one works at the staff. at despite her disability, and takes care of her independently and is an incredibly and we are pleased to meet. thank you. >> hello. i am really happy to be here and share a little bit about my story. i was born -- i'm 33 years old. she introduced that growing up with 60 children, most of them are victims of agent orange. i saw a lot of deformity there. but i did not know what happened, or the reason why. i did not know that until i moved to the normal primary school, that's so this time i just wanted to move back to family and live with my parents young. because my father said to me that he just has one dream, that i can graduate university and get a good job. because the future, they will die soon. so i have to go back to learn, to study some. i try to get back and try to study you, and finally, i make my father's dreams come true. the consequence of agent orange is not only the vitamin, it's only a human health, and now they had the forced born with the deformity by agent orange. in my country most of them are living with the family. they want to have the second and third generations, who will take care of the victims? we will take care of their children some, and, i think that the hardest part it's really important. it really is important, all the american veterans get competition from the u.s. government, but their children and grandparents have nothing. the vietnam veterans and the victims have nothing from the u.s. government to, that's why the vietnam. the victims for peace group have a gift up to half victim of agent orange.. i really thank you, what everyone did for victims of agent orange. and whatever association and victims for peace group, what they did for all victims. i really thank you for your time here to share our story, and help in the future, everyone continues to support victims of agent orange. thank you. >> i think i'm correct in saying there are funding's, i know i sent money when i came back but it's a somewhere that you can inform this group, it's a wonderful thing to be able to send money. i don't have the exact listing, do you know or some way that we can find that out? how to spend money to friendship village? >> if you have the support, you can send it to the vietnam agent orange relief and responsibility here, or the vietnam association of agent orange in vietnam. you can find it on the internet. >> thank you., now we have some time for people to ask questions and we want to get a dialog going. we don't want pontificating. you can't go on and on and on about whatever you're asking this evening. we concise, and let's get some kind of a dialog going between all of us. i see one hand raised already, do we have a mic? >> i want to commend all of you who have been working for this cause it's where we have a panel populated only by women, and i commend all of you. you've done an amazing job at identifying the issue of highlighting cases of success, while also highlighting the struggle of doing the work. what about the future? what about the futures of continuing this into the future? what are obstacles that need to be overcome? susan, it's beyond that as well. how are ways that we can smooth out he was government attention to this so that there aren't changes and between the administration woman certainly congresspeople retire, there is a good handoff and a smooth narrative that grows. >> and it is the victims of agent orange relief that was really introduced by barbara lee. you see legislation to help educate people that this struggle continues, and that this is only one of the issues that continues from all those years ago of the united states intervention in southeast asia. so yes, we love support for that legislation and i'm curious how many of you have family or friends that have had illnesses related to agent orange? >> just take a look. it's extraordinary. every time we go someplace and speak, someone comes up to us and says we know somebody, so part of this legislation is to take care of those that have been harmed. i also want to say, the other part of our responsibility is to stop future, that is a long lasting legacy that i think we need to aim for. it has been mentioned earlier today that the united states as military bases across the world, surely there is something that each one of us in this room could do to stop the proliferation of the american military. so i will invite that, thank you. >> i'd like to add to the question, to say, one of the things that would pop up this morning was a young woman looking for someone to research, and said we will talk to a vietnam that? our mother said what are you start with your dad. that is the biggest thing that i see within our generation as second generation agent orange victims. this has not been seen yet, but it's coming. the biggest thing is that there's a lack of education. so many vietnam veterans, number one, don't talk about their service, they don't share with their families, and on fortunately they are passing at a young age. so the sleeves a large gap where families have a grandchild, and have no idea of origin. so, that is a big issue that i see going forward, that we need to have more of an education base, and helping our veterans feel safe to speak with their families about what has happened with them and their health. i just want to add one little bit about this issue in louse. it has been issued by many people today so thank you for bringing that laos and cambodia were also part of the war and that was a cia led war and a lot of that war is still classified, and thank goodness for researchers like john products who is trying to get that stuff released into the public but, we really do not know the full extent of what was done in our name in cambodia, blouse, and vietnam, and after 50 years, we will be celebrating 50 years very soon, at the end of this war. >> do i have a woman asked me question? yes, do you have a mic? are you speaking? i just want to give them like -- >> nowhere, to say something. thank you for the presentation, i want to share one more result from yesterday. we just got some really good news, we went to meet with members of congress. we met with congresswoman rashida tlaib, one of the new young women in the house. she, said i'm going to get you at least five cosponsors. i just got an email, she got a six already and she is on, she is going to be pursuing this so this is very direct response to juan's amazing, eloquent discussion and i think it is a sign of what can be done in response the last question you get support in the house and the senate. one has taken the lead on this so i just want to do announced that. >> that is wonderful news. i'm so glad about that. now, i want to ask for students, i want to hear what you think so please explain who you are. >> now i am a student here at jude w., and we had a discussion earlier about the teaching of the vietnam war and also to go back to susan the comment about the importance of education, so, my impressions here is that actually in our history class in vietnam, because i was born and raised in vietnam, we did not talk about the legacy part of the war which includes asian orange issues and also unexploded -- but here, i don't see that legacy part being mentioned that much in the curriculum, and even in a grad school setting, most of the legacy related to that topic would be about foreign policy, military interventions, for, example so the ongoing issues that we are facing seems to be a, you know, put aside, so i was just wondering, apart from the legislations pushing effort that your organizations have been, doing have you tried, or is there any civil societies effort trying to put pressure is on, you know, the education system in terms of including that war legacy in their narrative into the curriculum. so that's the 1st question. the 2nd question question is apart from you know, organizations like yours i also know that there's a lot of civil society groups fighting for, also related to the war, women's rights. for example the women who were sexually exploited in the wars and the victim of the massacres. so i think if there is a coalitions, if all of those groups, you, know for coalition then that would create a stronger, a much wider, my english, it can't commit to a much wider audience and really resonated not to a whole lot more people, so have you tried making that effort? thank you. >> i think what you're saying is the human element is so so important. when i did my book a long time passing it was really hundreds and hundreds of interviews with people who had been there and people who had not gone to war. i got 3000 single spaced handwritten letters from veterans same thank you i've never written to an author but this is the 1st time and i feel like i'm not alone so i'm just saying that what we need now, and you're also talented, what we now as another book seriously that would deal with these things in the exact way you're talking about because it's the only way that people understand war. all of the stuff about munitions and money and blah blah blah is not doing it for people so i think your idea is great and i think all of you should write a book. >> i would also suggest because i know we have a number of teachers and professors in the room, to included in your courses, in your solidify. we have tons of material and there are books that have been written and there is a lot of information out there we can come and talk. you've got your experts. >> another student? >> is there a microphone? >> hello, there. hi, my name is gavin and i wanted to ask, a putt to echo that point, i also am a person with a disability, and i know that in the united states the only way that the a.d.a. is made to be compliant or organizations are made to be compliant with the 88 is through some persuasion and activism. i have no reason to believe that is any fair different anywhere in the world. so i'm wondering about the level of collaboration there is between disability activists, salt advocates and organizations and the u.s. and vietnam, that is relating to children who work with agent orange, or people with disabilities more broadly in vietnam. is there any collaboration between those organizations fees and disability rights organizations? i also think that people should teach more about disability and disability history and the history of disability rights in the u.s.. that's my question. >> there's some very good vietnamese organizations and i'd say ten years ago, i can't remember the date that it passed, actually, that law was funded through usaid grants to look at a different laws around the world and help vietnam craft its own disability law. the implementation of it, like you very well now is a challenge. and educating people about what their rights are as a person with a disability, you're right to a job or to education, i don't know if you face this but that young girl i put in the photo, my vietnamese colleague add to fight to get that school to accept her. they thought that she would take down the greats of the classroom. in fact she is the top student in her class. there are a lot of enemies organizations working on that. there's been some international collaboration but not as much as there should be. >> if i can get one more student? no students. okay, go ahead. i don't see anybody. >> i'm george black, i am a journalist. speaking of something that susan said, i have the privilege recently of being in class with susan and two colleagues -- >> turn on the microphone. >> i'm sorry. that way, okay, sorry, i think i have a loud voice. i am the loud colleague and i think what some of the slides that susan showed and some of the responses from people about how assistance is necessary and where it should go and what was really striking to me, i come from the alloy valley in vietnam, and a leading doctor in illinois had said to me about the valley, the striking thing is, there are more people with disabilities in the city which has a medical center then there are in the valley -- which was massively sprayed, and the reason why is it so many of the kids have died because of the lack of delivery of health assistance so when we went to low, had that thought in mind as we went around the villages, that many of the kids, many of the disabled people susan was talking about and thinking, you, know there are staggering numbers in louse, but it is probably accurate, i would guess to say that the health care delivery system in that country and certainly the level of awareness of the government officials is perhaps at a level it was in vietnam in the 1980s and in terms of awareness even before that, the 1970s so the issue is, as susan said eloquently, some of these patients who need urgent medical attention or rehabilitation or education and training, the barriers and getting them to affective health care in a country like laos our mind-boggling, frankly. this is a very rural country. and even in the dry season so when one thinks in terms of assistance and correction and addressing this historic legacy and one thinks about things like congressional initiatives and foreign aid, i think it's really important to think of a country like louse where the poverty is extraordinary, how important it is to get humanitarian private efforts and geo efforts and government made efforts directed towards strengthening the infrastructure, the broader capacity of the health care system to respond to this because it is a critical situation. i don't think -- if almost a spot that is a question. >> i will respond to in a way where if you feel like back in the eighties in vietnam, and what i am in louse, but also my lao colleagues the government level, what is different in laos as well is that the government, they fought in the war, they have children who were born with disabilities, they have been fighting for attention the agent orange issues of the disability no children and grandchildren since the war. in laos, the people in government did not fight on the ho chi minh trail. they don't have any connection. the people we worked with on the ho chi minh trail or ethnic minorities who do not even speak the lao language most of the time so there is not that direct connection i when i was just there, we worked with the national regulatory authority which is the group that works on unexploded ordinance in laos the u.s. give 30 million a, year 40 million for next, year i believe, to address the problem of the u.s. -- in laos and they say they're being told that i believe strongly, by the u.s. embassy, they're being told they need proof that agent orange is causing problems there, and i say, you do not need proof. yes, you cannot prove one individual, yes, you could have scientific arguments over one individuals, what caused that problem, but there is enough evidence, i believe, to show that there are people suffering today. and it does not matter, you don't have to fight over the proof, you just need to get the assistance there to the people who need it and in laos particular we are probably talking about 10,000 people born with congenital malformations who have serious disabilities partly because many of them died. in fact, some of the people in the slides have died. i am too late for most of these people. we are talking maybe 10,000 people. that is an easy do for the usaid to get this money to the organizations, to increase the capacity of the medical system in laos. it is an easy thing to do and we just need that to happen. >> it is much work has been done in vietnam in that i am extremely grateful for and that is extremely needed, i also need for people to understand the inequity in what has happened, to the children of america in vietnam veterans as well. the children of female vietnam veterans and mail vietnam veterans. and you know how much aid has been set aside for the children of vietnam veterans? a big fat zero, so this is all amazing work and it has to be done but we have to work together to make this tragedy more bearable for those that bear the burden. >> a question on remediation and hotspots, remediation consisting of removing the top three inches or the top three feet? and hotspots that was mentioned our around foreign bases so, does this respect -- on the base or spring around the base? those two questions. and to be, fair does the stuff have a half life like nuclear material, after so many years ago as a way? or how long is it active? on >> starting with the first one, the half life really depends where it is. if it is buried under the soil, even a small bit of soil, hundreds of years, in fact, we don't really know. it depends on so many things. the hotspots, major rich tan bases, because of a lot of spillage, that includes one of the largest spills of agent orange and it is buried in the soil, in the settlement of the lake, so a big concern is, the because dioxin is fat soluble, it is the ducks in the fish feeding on that settlement and that soil, that is being transmitted today in the bodies of people in vietnam. and yes, it could be, there basically going down to, each one is different but at least three meters of soil that they're removing and cleaning it up, and there is various techniques that they used to clean it up, depending on the severity but it is a very expensive process. they thought in the beginning it might be about 70 80 million in one location, it was closer to 300 million by the time they are done. another area is probably ten times more contaminated so we are talking about a lot of money and years to clean it up. >> i was in one of those locations watching what they were doing in 2013 and they kept talking, it had not got to the public but they were going to dig deep, deep, deep, and somehow bury this contaminated soil, and then cover it, so has that happened? and it is invaluable and is it working or not when? >> they did take it up and what they ended up doing is putting it in these gigantic ovens, and he did at the soil to 365 celsius to bring -- breakdown the dioxin molecule into decontaminate, but then we also came across the arsenic. i mean, that action is not the only problem. >> they broke that down and what happened? >> then they were able, to the soil was to a level that was acceptable. every government determines what is acceptable contamination. i, mean we have dioxin everywhere, but it brought it down to a level below 150 parts per trillion which is very technical, but to the level it would be safe to pave over expand the runway is basically what they did. >> you've had your hand up. >> i am very pose near. my husband served in vietnam for nine months. can you hear me? now so, he served in da nang for nine months and when you return from vietnam, he worked really actively to help the agent orange committee in connecticut. he did a painting that was exhibited there and he did this for others. and not until a few minutes ago that i know, that his bladder cancer could be related and his doctor said he would have to be in round up for it because you're cancer, and of course no reference to agent orange so if you weren't here today i would not know this connection, so educating veterans is extremely important and thank you very much. (applause) >> to follow up on that. what about the medical community? where do the medical schools in this on both -- in vietnam and the united states? are these doctors adjustable -- educable? are there any here? have i offended anyone, i hope? >> let me say first under the agent orange or red just read through the va, there is an identification today of a book 18 different, what they call presumed illnesses, so if you are in vietnam and you had boots on the ground plus a couple of other categories, then it is identified, if you have one of these 18 presumed illnesses that it would be related to your service in vietnam. that is in the va and in fact there are attempts to privatized the va so the doctors that have that, knowledge that is where it is. do other doctors ever receive this education?, and i don't think so unless there are community who come to the particular position. >> thank, you this exactly the point. this is a public health issue, if this is a public health issue, with multiple generations, you can't rely on the va to be a message very, so it seems to me it is the responsibility for the medical schools to train the doctors and raise awareness and i think would make an excellent joint project in vietnam and the medical community in vietnam to raise the awareness in the medical community, think about mobilizing the doctors and suddenly they have the realization which we just heard took place now thanks to you. >> i just feel that i agree but i feel like that is kind of a pipe dream quite honestly. i wish it one because i cannot tell you how many kids vietnam that's in veterans are stonewalled until they're crazy untold it's all imagination and there is no research to support our claims because if susan had had a longer time she could've talk to you about how they stonewall every bit of research so, for us to be able to go to the medical community, we have to have our ducks in a row and say look, this is this, but unfortunately everything is so open-ended it's very unfortunate that they simply do not believe us and i was just speaking with paul cox this afternoon about a va, dr. even a va doctor that i spoke to when i was at a conference who boasted in a forum like this that the man generally only has 15 minutes of fame when it comes to creating a child and that no wonder the man, you know, the va does not recognize paternal exposure as causing birth defects in the children in their children and i raise my hand and said excuse me but aren't i roughly half the genetic material of my father and he had to suggest that yes that was true but he was quite unhappy so even within the va, there's misinformation, the veterans don't get everything that they need and they are also denied and stonewalled. >>, just to steal them, like my name is dick hues and i just want to briefly mention they're now using agent orange it official language of the u.s. government. i have been working with him for a long time as susan and others, and tim breeze are needs to hear from you. he works in his, office he is gathered all of the money cleaning up the da nang disability etc. the disability is not really given as much attention as remediation. tim is very busy with finding many different things. he's a democratic clerk on appropriations, but the more he hears from you, the more he will focus on that. his name is in your program. tim breeze. or sent a note, center message, it will help. >> an email? >> a letter would be best, i'm not sure he read his email because he's very busy but you can write tim breeze or -- breezer. write him, appropriations for foreign relations. >> and, also that goes, for i, mean talk to your own senators and write a lever. i mean, you're representatives, everyone. it does, at a letter, a physical letter, i think would be, good though you can email. the other thing i was going to say, hopefully, that as science progresses and we're looking at epigenetics and we're trying to identify how how chemicals in the environment -- we're not just talking of agent orange we're talking about you know we're time of climate change in the environment earlier this is all interconnected we're all walking around with dioxin in our body right now. and i think as epigenetics improves we will hopefully get to the point where doctors keep denying that has brought the expert caused by her father's exposure in vietnam. let's hope, but i am still hopeful that there are still some very good people didn't work for the national institute of environmental health sciences or the epa who are now retiring and are now able, we are, hoping to broad -- you know, spread more information about what they know that they were not able to say. >> okay, we have time for one more and i see this person has been having his hand up for a long time, somebody i know. paul. >> first of, all thank you all very much, i just have a plea. i am a vietnam veteran. i served in 1969 and 1970 at the 85th evacuees spittle. i want to encourage all my brothers and sisters sitting in this room to talk about your experience to younger people. i know that we have all been trained, whether we like to ring into the service or not or if it was a choice or not, the two things that we remember, we are there to protect and serve. i think we spend an awful lot of time in the protective mode by protecting our loved ones were hearing our stories, for fear that we would stand them somehow with more. i have learned to turn it into the serve part and what i'm trying to do now is to serve younger people by telling them my story, sharing our story and i can tell you that g.w. is doing a pretty good job of it because this is friday, wednesday i did a lecture at the school of public health on being a vietnam veteran and i'm getting worn out by being one of the voices because there's not that many of us left but so many of us left and we need to tell people our story. >> ok thank you so much,, we've got to get going. >> before we take a break, i would like to try to kilometers up here, david cortright in barbara doherty and perhaps peter yarrow would be willing to come up and join us. come on up, yes. you can do that if you want. okay. so, this may be the 50th anniversary of the mobilization but today is also the 75th anniversary of the birth of our co-editor david cortright and so, with peters help we want to show that we are more than a single issue coalition. >> this is my best song. >> happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday, happy birthday -- happy birthday dear david, happy birthday to you. >> for peace in the world and for support for all of those who are still -- thank you. >> at a conference on your birthday, but that is who i am. (laughs) >> so let's take a 15 minute break. >> good morning. thank you all for joining for today's session. it's going to be