Dr. Ivan Amarasinghe

In Viet Nam alone there are over a million human beings suffering from horrific teratogenic deformities caused allegedly due to the spraying of over 77 million litres of Agent Orange supplied by Monsanto and Bayer, sprayed by the American air force over much of the fertile Mekong  and Red River basin areas. Their immediate aim was to defoliate the jungles in search of the Viet Minh, Viet Cong and destroy the paddy fields and agriculture of the innocent Vietnamese people.

This was termed a Scorched Earth policy through destroyal of a country and its rebellious patriots by a western cabal led by the torch bearers of international democracy; Sadly the earth was scorched and generations have had to suffer but the spirit of defiance and the will of the Vietnamese bare footed paddies to repel the super powers reigned supreme. Unlike for post-war subjugant Germany, Japan, South Korea etc. no war reparations were made to the Vietnamese by any of the aggressors. From the date of victory in April 1975 to 1994 the US connived with the UN to ban all countries from trading with Viet Nam.

In 1994 President Clinton agreed to end some of the trading bans in exchange for the US to be allowed to commence an office in Ha Noi to collect all information and any remnants/cadavers of US servicemen Missing in Action (MIA) during the war. Open economy (Doi Moi) was the result. Today, Viet Nam is the fastest developing country in the East. Even those in their thirties still tell us of their childhood poverty and how they had to kill anything moving to satisfy their post-war hunger due to the US sanctions. If not for the rampant black market economy across the border with mainland China, Viet Nam would have been hell on earth, they say.

I have seen with my own eyes numerous innocent human beings suffering from physical deformities (one eyed or blind/deaf at birth, distorted faces and figures,  immobile children and adults who never could take a single step on their own on this earth, bodies covered in rashes and boils  that are untreatable etc. etc.) across Viet Nam. Never thought the day will arrive that a grown mature Sri Lankan man would cry when confronted with such inhumanity wrought on innocents by the Western powers.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki exploded with two atom bombs dropped by the US and killed around 250000, some thousands suffering post-explosion radiation attributed carcinomas and blindness.

In Viet Nam the spraying of the herbicide Agent Orange alone killed over 2.5 million people  suffering excruciating slow deaths through carcinomas, neurological disorders etc. Four decades have gone by since the spraying of the Monsanto herbicide and over a million casualties are there suffering the after effects of the war crimes of the US and its allies.

Quite apart from the allegations of teratogenic effects of this Monsanto pioneered grim reaper spray, there is another countrywide Monsanto pioneered herbicide sweeping the Mekong and Red River deltas and the agricultural plains of Indo China. This herbicide is supplied at very cheap prices by its giant neighbour and historical enemy, China. Vietnamese agriculture The name of the herbicide is Round up/Glyphosate. No one alleges that the massive use of Round up in agriculture is the cause of the continuation of  over a million human afflictions 40 years after the spraying of the first Monsanto herbicide, Agent Orange. They all attribute the continuation of human deformities, and health problems as residual teratogenic effects of the Monsanto pioneered herbicide Agent Orange which their western enemies imposed on them. So be it.

However, if by any misfortune, future scientific findings prove that over use of Monsanto pioneered herbicide Round Up/ Glyphosate purchased so cheaply from its historical enemy China is the cause for the continuation of ill health within the Vietnamese peasantry, the national, regional and global reverberations would be astounding.

Will the US accuse China of intended genocide of Vietnamese in the knowledge that Monsanto herbicides were known to cause grave health problems to the Vietnamese? The US may even declare that when they sprayed Agent Orange some 40 years ago they did not intend to create health monstrosities to the Vietnamese people. In fact the US may claim that they came to save them and look after them as Western Good Samaritans on outreach service. They may also declare that China as a Communist state and a known historical enemy of Vietnamese people, intentionally supplied Round Up/Glyphosate to annihilate the Vietnamese and as such the act of supply of this herbicide was intentionally genocidal! Has historical overtones of accusations of supply of Opium to the Chinese by the British in years gone by!!

Whatever the future holds, one hopes and prays that  the global scientific jury  exonerates Round UP/Glyphosate as the innocuous sibling in contrast to its deadly sibling Agent Orange so that the parent scientists of the generic multinational (Praise be upon Monsanto!) be awarded a relevant Nobel Prize!!!