Statement of Pham The Minh at the Disarmament Gathering
New York, May 2, 2010

On behalf of the Vietnamese people I am honored to join you in this international gathering for peace and disarmament! The Vietnamese people know the horrors of war. We are a country without nuclear weapons and care committed to the development of a nuclear free zone in Southeast Asia. As a country that has suffered so much from war, we stand for peace and disarmament.

Two days ago, we celebrated the 35th anniversary of the end of the war that devastated our land and killed our people. These 35 years have allowed us to rebuild our country. But the consequences of the chemical weapons used during that war continue to this day!

My name is Pham The Minh and I bear the scars of that terrible war on my body. I am one of the millions of victims of Agent Orange. My parents were soldiers who fought to liberate Vietnam. They were sprayed with the toxic chemical Agent Orange by U.S. forces. Like many U.S. veterans, my father died of cancer from Agent Orange. Because the dioxin in Agent Orange causes genetic damage, I and my sister were born with disabilities and diseases. My leg is twisted and I suffer from severe internal illnesses of the liver and heart.

But I am one of the lucky ones. Hundreds of thousands of children in Vietnam are born with such severe birth defects that they die young or live lives of agony. Many are born without limbs or eyes or mental consciousness.

Agent Orange not only continues to sicken three generations of families, but it poisons the land and water in areas of Vietnam where it was dumped. These “hot spots” cause damage to the environment. And they sicken people who eat the food.

Healing the wounds of war between our two countries can never be fully accomplished until those who are responsible for this suffering make things right!

The United States government ordered the spraying of Agent Orange on the land and people of Vietnam, endangering us and their own soldiers. They have yet to accept their responsibility. International public opinion has resulted in congress granting several million dollars. But it is just a tiny fraction of what is required to clean up the land and help those suffering. Our friends in the Agent Orange Campaign will be sponsoring a bill in Congress to accomplish this as well as pursuing Dow, Monsanto and the other corporate criminals who manufactured Agent Orange.

We ask that you join us in seeking justice for all Agent Orange victims! We ask that the use of chemical weapons such as Agent Orange and depleted uranium be forever banned! We join you in calling for the complete elimination of nuclear weapons and all weapons of mass destruction.

Like the Japanese A & H bomb survivors and so many others we believe that the future of humanity requires peace, justice and disarmament! Let us work together make this future a reality! Thank you.