Influential US Senator and Vietnam war veteran Chuck Hagel said that the consequences of Agent Orange (AO)/dioxin sprayed by US troops during the war are far reaching and must be resolved soon.  

In an interview with the BBC regarding the oral arguments by Vietnamese AO victims, to be heard at the US Court of Appeals in New York on June 18, Senator Chuck Hagel said that he supported compensation for the millions of people living inside Vietnam that are still afflicted with severe health problems.  

Senator Hagel, who has a seat on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the US government should send working groups to Vietnam to step up their aid to the Vietnamese AO/dioxin victims.  

Meanwhile, toxoligy expert Prof. Arnold Schecter from the Texas Medical University, stressed that AO/dioxins have led to degenerations of health among Vietnamese people who have been exposed to the herbicides.  

Earlier, on June 14, Vietnamese AO/dioxin victims attended a meeting with several US congressmen at the headquarters of the House of Representatives. In the meeting, Congressman John Conyers, Chairman of the US House Judiciary Committee, apologised for the pain and suffering that the Vietnamese war and Agent Orange victims have endured. (VNA)