US has obligation to help Vietnam: US Associate Professor

She made the remark when attending the international scientific conference “Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (AO) in Vietnam-Expectations” held in Hanoi o­n March 16-17.

Doctor Bennete said she has paid a great deal of attention to the impact of AO/Dioxin o­n the ecosystem and people of Vietnam . Having come to Vietnam many times and seen firsthand the lives of the Vietnamese AO victims, especially in attending the above-mentioned conference, she was deeply touched. She said: “Helping Vietnam is our responsibility.”

She and her husband, also a professor, brought twelve students from their university to Ho Chi Minh City for eight weeks last summer in order to help them directly witness the lives of Vietnamese AO victims as well as the Vietnamese people. In the future, she said, she will hold the same trips to Vietnam so that American students can gain a more accurate and comprehensive understanding of Vietnam .

As a Professor of Maternal and Child Health, she is strongly interested in the reproductive health of Vietnamese women. Speaking of the birth defects that are often a consequence of AO/Dioxin exposure, she said: “To think that many women now in different generations in Vietnam have felt fear about having children, because of what may be born with their children, is heartbreaking.”

Asked about the fact that US chemical companies have denied the harmful impacts of AO o­n the ecosystem and people of Vietnam, she confirmed that everybody knows that dioxin is a very dangerous chemical and that it should not be used, either in war or in peace, so that people are exposed or agriculture is harmed or plants are destroyed.

In her opinion, the harmful impacts of the AO, which the US companies called defoliant, were very clear. The problem is whether the US authorities and the chemical companies take responsibility for the consequences of their actions.