The world according to Monsanto : pollution, corruption, and

dioxin: a polluter working with the pentagon 43and then suddenly it felt like rain. There was engine noise. They told us itwas [the same] weed killers that our farmers used every day. I have buddieswho washed in empty Agent Orange drums or used them to barbecue.They never told us that the herbicides contained dioxin. But the governmentknew.”Who knew what, and when? More than thirty years after the end of theVietnam War, the question continues to divide experts. According to a reportprepared by the General Accounting Office in November 1979, “At thattime the Department of Defense did not consider herbicide orange toxic ordangerous to humans and took few precautions to prevent exposure to it.” 18One frequently cited piece of evidence sheds light on the blindness of themilitary authorities. This is the testimony of Dr. James Clary, a scientistworking in an Air Force chemical weapons laboratory in Florida, who playeda key role in developing the spray tank designed to disperse Agent Orange.In a letter to Senator Tom Daschle, he wrote: “When we [military scientists]initiated the herbicide program in the 1960s, we were aware of the potentialfor damage due to dioxin contamination in the herbicide. We were evenaware that the military formulation had a higher dioxin concentration thanthe civilian version due to the lower cost and speed of manufacture. However,because the material was to be used on the ‘enemy,’ none of us wereoverly concerned. We never considered a scenario in which our own personnelwould become contaminated with the herbicide.” 19Another statement seems to indicate that military leaders stationed inVietnam were not informed of the extreme toxicity of the dioxin containedin Agent Orange. Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr., promoted to commander ofnaval forces in Vietnam in September 1968, headed the fleet patrolling theMekong delta. To protect marines from being ambushed by the Viet Cong inthis strategic zone, he ordered that the riverbanks be sprayed with Agent Orange.It turned out that the captain of one of the boats was his own son,Elmo R. Zumwalt III, who died of cancer at the age of forty-two, leaving anorphan with various handicaps. Thereafter, Admiral Zumwalt moved heavenand earth to dispel the secrecy surrounding dioxin. He was appointed specialassistant to the secretary of Veterans Affairs, Edward J. Derwinski, andfought tirelessly to have victims of Agent Orange given adequate care.“I think government authorities were not informed of the harmfulness ofdioxin before the late 1960s,” said Gerson Smoger, a lawyer for many Viet-