July 13, 2015 - A new official medical history of the Vietnam War is to be written to correct the record on the Agent Orange controversy.The council of the Australian War Memorial decided on the move after a long campaign by veterans dissatisfied by Barry Smith's account in the original history.
Jim Wain, the national president of the Vietnam Veterans Federation of Australia, told veterans the "wonderful news" over the weekend.
He said that Professor Smith's account was "fatally flawed" and "unjustly insults" the veterans over their "years of campaigning" to have the repatriation system acknowledge Agent Orange's harmfulness.
Mr Wain said that Professor Smith's history "goes so far as to accuse the campaigning veterans of dishonesty and greed".
Instead, he said, the "veterans turned out to be right about the harmfulness of Agent Orange" and "their behaviour, far from being dishonest and motivated by greed, was a fine example of the Anzac tradition of veterans looking after their comrades-in-arms".
Mr Wain succeeded Tim McCombe, who died this year after leading the long campaign to achieve this result. read more>>>
Jul 11, 2015 - U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty stood beneath a tree in front of the New Britain Public Library Saturday to listen to constituents offer ideas about what she could do in Congress to help her district.
snip William Johnstone of New Britain said he wants politicians in Washington to restore Agent Orange-related benefits to U.S. Navy veterans that were stopped in 2002 in a cost-cutting move.
snip For Johnstone, the Agent Orange issue is deeply personal.
A U.S. Navy veteran who served off the coast of Vietnam, he’s battling prostate cancer, which is a possible side effect of exposure to Agent Orange. Until 2002, Johnson said, his care would have been covered because he was a veteran of the era. read more>>>
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