In February, the cleanup work at the former US airbase Bien Hoa in southern Vietnam suddenly stopped.
Around the base, hundreds of thousands of people live, some just meters from the toxic remains. A few hundred meters away lies the Dong Nai River, which flows into the multi-million city of Ho Chi Minh.
There is contaminated soil enough to fill 40,000 trucks – or 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
It's unreasonable. Agent Orange came from the US and was used here – it makes us the victims, said Nguyen Thi Ngoc Diem to The New York Times in February, after the cleanup stopped.
She was born a few years after the war with a deformed spine and deformed limbs, just like tens of thousands of other Vietnamese whose parents were exposed to American chemicals. Diem sits in a wheelchair and still lives with her parents.
Low protection
During the Vietnam War, the US sprayed large areas in then-South Vietnam with the defoliant Agent Orange. Over forests and fields, countless millions of liters of the herbicide were dumped to expose hidden FNL soldiers – and to deprive the Vietnamese guerrilla forces of food.
According to Vietnamese estimates, hundreds of thousands of people died as a result of the extremely toxic byproduct dioxin, which is very difficult to break down. At least 150,000 children were born with birth defects.
Since 2020, the US has helped with the cleanup of the Bien Hoa base, where enormous amounts of Agent Orange were stored during the war. Washington has promised over 4.3 billion Swedish kronor to the ten-year project.
But when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio abruptly stopped all American aid in mid-February, the cleanup workers had to leave quickly, writes the American investigative site Propublica. The giant contaminated soil piles were left largely unprotected. For weeks, they were only covered with tarps – which at least once blew away.
Cancer and birth defects
Shortly after, American diplomats stationed in Vietnam sounded the alarm to the White House. The rainy season is approaching, they warned in a letter obtained by Propublica. With heavy rainfall, dioxin-contaminated soil risks flowing into nearby communities and poisoning the food supply.
"To put it simply, we are rapidly moving towards an environmental and life-threatening disaster", they wrote.
The White House responded with silence.
The US stopped using Agent Orange in 1971, after it was discovered that the substance contained one of the most potent poisons ever created: tetrachlorodibenzodioxin, also known as TCDD. Even today, the effects are seen in the Vietnamese people: cancer, immune diseases, birth defects, severe deformities, and psychological and neurological problems.
The half-life is long – up to 100 years in soil, according to studies. Last year, authorities in Dong Nai, where Bien Hoa is the provincial capital, reported that over 8,600 people in the area still suffer from Agent Orange-related health problems. During the war, Dong Nai was sprayed more than any other province in Vietnam.
Rehabilitation program affected
In late February, the White House backed down and gave the green light to resume the cleanup work at the base. But it is unclear whether the funding is actually back on track, note several American media outlets. The USAID workers who oversaw the project have also been laid off, along with most of the aid agency's staff, in Donald Trump's and his "efficiency advisor" Elon Musk's hunt for savings in the US government.
When Propublica visited Bien Hoa in mid-March, they found that over half of the employees had left the base.
They (the White House) have backed down from several of these arbitrary decisions, but we are far from being on the other side, says Tim Rieser, an advisor to Democratic Senator Peter Welch, who has urged the government to resume the projects in Vietnam, to AP.
You have to ask yourself if those who made the decision to freeze these funds know anything at all about the tragic history regarding the US and Vietnam.
Trump's dismantling of the aid agency USAID has also affected the work of clearing unexploded ordnance in Vietnam, according to American reports. A rehabilitation program for the war's victims has also been hit by the cuts, as well as a museum about the US's efforts to repair the damage after the Vietnam War.
Strategically important
The cuts also risk jeopardizing years of diplomatic efforts to repair the relationship with Vietnam, which is strategically important for the US in its power struggle with China.
Trump has undone 30 years of diligent diplomacy, notes The New York Times.
This doesn't help at all. It's just another example of what many critics claim: "You can't trust the Americans". It's not a good message, says Vietnam veteran Chuck Searcy to AP.
Vietnam will likely think twice before deepening its military cooperation with the US or buying American weapons, notes Vietnamese political scientist Nguyen Khac Giang according to AP.
The trust (in the US) has increased gradually and is very easy to destroy. There are good reasons for Hanoi to be cautious.
The Vietnam War was fought from 1955 to 1975. In addition to Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were also drawn into the war. In Vietnam, the conflict is called the American War.
On one side stood the South Vietnamese regime, supported by the US. On the other side stood communist-ruled North Vietnam and its allies in the south, the left-wing guerrilla FNL (also known as Viet Cong in the US).
North Vietnam and FNL registered a total of 1.1 million fallen soldiers during the war. South Vietnam reported 200,000 fallen. The US suffered over 58,000 losses.
In March 1973, the US withdrew from the war, and soon after, the northern side emerged victorious. South Vietnam surrendered on April 30, 1975.
Sources: University of Washington, Landguiden/UI
