How have Agent Orange victims been compensated?

A defoliant used by the U.S. during the Vietnam War with the code name Agent Orange has long been a source of legal battles.

American soldiers sprayed the herbicide in the jungles of Vietnam believing that the chemical was harmless as told by their superiors. After returning home, they suffered headaches, dizziness, heartburn, lung and prostatic cancer and heart disease. As their wives got similar illnesses or miscarriage or gave birth to deformed babies, veterans began suspecting this “devilish chemical.”

Vietnam War veterans and their families filed the first class-action lawsuit in 1978. The Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange represented by Sgt. Charles Hartz filed a lawsuit for 4 million U.S. dollars in damages against seven defoliant manufacturers, including Dow Chemical and Monsanto.

The large lawsuit had 10 million plaintiffs and lasted six years but never went to court. Instead, it ended with an agreement between manufacturers and defendants in 1984, awarding 180 million dollars in damages to the victims.

Veterans and their families were enraged by the decision made by the defendants, calling the agreement invalid. They toured five cities and held public hearings to lodge an appeal but judge Jack Weinstein rejected the claim by the plaintiffs, saying, "The procedure to agreement was right and fair."

Eventually, 12,000-13,700 dollars in individual compensation were paid to the veterans and their families depending on the level of damage.

In 2004, Vietnamese filed a class action lawsuit in the U.S. They held 14 companies that produced “Agent Orange” responsible for the damage done to them due to the indiscriminate spraying of defoliants by U.S. forces. The first suit was dismissed in 2005 and the second was also dismissed in 2007.

The Supreme Court rejected the case in 2009 because the U.S. strictly applied international laws.

Foreigners can file a lawsuit with a U.S. court only if the U.S. conducted illegal activities by violating international laws or treaties. The U.S. court ruled that spraying “Agent Orange” to sort out weeds during the Vietnam War was not a violation of international laws. All lawsuits filed by Korean soldiers during the Vietnam War to the U.S. court were dismissed.

Apart from lawsuits, the U.S. government has adopted a policy to alleviate the suffering of defoliant victims. Since American soldiers in Korea who claimed that they had buried Agent Orange in Camp Carroll in North Gyeongsang Province, ineligible for compensation given their service period and location, they will not be immediately compensated.