[NYTr] Vietnam Women's Union embraces US veteran

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

sent by map at economicdemocracy.org - activ-l Oct 20, 2007
http://www.economicdemocracy.org


Vietnam Women's Union embraces US veteran


1) Powerful photos of Vietnamese *and* US Vet victims [including
children and one grantchild of US vets]  of Agent Orange

(nothing too graphic but very powerful)

http://www.vn-agentorange.org/VanityFair_200608s.html


2) Vietnam Women's Union embraces US veteran

[Photo: http://www.vn-agentorange.org/images/sggp_MBoehm.jpg ]

[Caption: Mike kneels down beside Agent Orange victim Pham Van Thi
as he shares sufferings with him]

VietNamNet Bridge  -- An American veteran of the Vietnam War has been
accepted into the Vietnam Women's Union chapter in Quang Ngai
Province, and the pride he feels is clear to all.

After witnessing the massacre of innocent civilians by US troops, Roy
Mike Boehm, who was stationed in Cu Chi outside Sai Gon, sought and
gained a discharge from the army.

Returning home, Mike felt betrayed by his government and even his
family. [Washington's] unjust action in Vietnam haunted the ex-soldier
and he decided to do something to atone for his part in it and to ease
the suffering of the people he had victimized.

Eventually he came up with the idea of raising capital for poor women
in the central province of Quang Ngai so that they could escape their
poverty.

In 1992, a nervous Mike returned to Vietnam with a dozen other US
veterans. His discomfort left him, however, as soon as he saw a
Vietnamese security guard gently guiding a friend, who had lost one
leg, as he hobbled toward the airport lobby.

Mike soon learned that Vietnamese people were happy to let bygones be
bygones and make friends with any person whatever their nationality.

On the way to the house of Tran Thi My, Nguyen Thi Thanh Huong, who
chairs the Women's Union chapter in Son Tinh District, Quang Ngai,
told us that 54 union members had each received between VND2 million
and VND5 million (US$125-313) to fund their small business ventures in
any way they saw fit.

Take Mrs. Tran Thi My for example. She used her VND2 million loan to
buy equipment and ingredients for baking cakes. After five years, her
business had thrived to the extent that she could repay the loan, keep
her children at school and even fix her old house.

Another is Tran Thi Chi, who went into the salt business with her
husband Truong Minh Tuan. He can well remember the hard times in the
early days of their marriage, and smiles when he looks around at the
comfortable life they lead today.

Another loan recipient, union member Nguyen Thi Rat, expressed her
gratitude to Mike and told him how the money had saved her life when a
heart ailment threatened to end it.

Not only hundreds of poor women get help; the victims of the lingering
wartime defoliant Agent Orange do too. On the way to Ba To, an upland
district of Quang Ngai, Mike was uncharacteristically quiet and said
nothing.

But as soon as he entered the new home of 20-year-old Agent Orange
victim Pham Van Thi, Mike suddenly knelt down beside him as Thi lay
flat on the floor and managed to come out with a few faltering and
hard-to-understand words to show that he understood the sufferings of
the innocent.

Like Pham Van Thi, Huynh Van Teo of Pho Nhon, Duc Pho District is a
long-term Agent Orange sufferer, 25 years in his case. s mother
answered all the questions for her son, saying through tears that his
body was getting smaller and smaller.

The unmarried sixty-year old Mike had to say good-bye to his
girlfriend when he decided to make Vietnam his second home. And it
hasn't been easy since, either. "I feel so lonely when I see a cozy
Vietnamese family,"he confessed.

Nevertheless, like those who receive his help, I believe Mike -- the
American who led a march in the USA last June in support of Vietnam's
lawsuit for Agent Orange victims -- is not alone.

http://www.vn-agentorange.org/sggp_20070909.html

Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign |
info at vn-agentorange.org | P.O. Box 303, Prince Street, New York, NY
10012-0006

3) BROCHURE: AGENT ORANGE AND THE VIETNAM WAR: MAGNITUDE AND
   CONSEQUENCES

http://www.vn-agentorange.org/brochure_2007.html

The Vietnam Agent Orange Relief and Responsibility Campaign is an
initiative of U.S. veterans, Vietnamese Americans and all concerned
about peace and justice. Vietnamese citizens have filed a lawsuit to
hold the chemical companies responsible for the crimes against
humanity of which their products were a part. Now it's our turn to
act: With this campaign, we seek to fulfill our responsibility by
insisting that our government honor its moral and legal responsibility
to compensate the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange.

Many way to help including Signing the petition to Congress and the
President online at www.petitiononline.com/AOVN. are listed
at
http://www.vn-agentorange.org/brochure_2007.html

"The most commonly used spray was dubbed Agent Orange because it was
shipped in barrels with an Orange stripe.

The 2,4,5-T herbicide is contaminated with trace amounts of TCDD
dioxin, the most toxic chemical known to science. Lab animals exposed
to minute quantities of dioxin (in parts per billion) havesuffered
increased rates of birth defects. The FDA withdrew approval for the
use of 2,4,5-T in the United States in 1970. Dioxin has a half-life of
about 10 years (i.e., after 10 years 50% of dioxin is still present in
the soil).

More information": http://www.vn-agentorange.org/brochure_2007.html

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