50th Anniversary of Peace in Vietnam (October 1, 2025)
Earlier this year, I visited Vietnam. Red flags and the number “50” were displayed everywhere. In 1975, the fall of Saigon and the reunification of the country brought an end to the “American War” (as the Vietnamese call it). More than that, this war put an end to a history of suffering under Japanese imperialist rule, which lasted until 1945, and the long humiliating French colonial rule.
1975 may seem like a distant past, but traces of the intense bombing by U.S. forces, especially the use of chemical weapons like napalm and defoliants containing dioxin-contaminated 2,4-D and other herbicides, remain to this day. The environmental destruction caused by this defoliant campaign was described as “ecocide” by figures like Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme. Soldiers from the United States, Australia, and South Korea also suffered long-term health consequences. According to the Vietnamese government, up to 3 million people suffer from illnesses caused by Agent Orange (a mixture of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T). What I witnessed were elderly and young victims, severely disabled even 50 years later, on the beautiful streets of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City).
Today, as we advocate for food safety and oppose genetically modified crops like soybeans, we recognize that U.S. companies have developed genetically modified soybeans and corn resistant to 2,4-D. While this is certainly different from the “spraying of Agent Orange,” the contamination of food with such chemicals is utterly unacceptable. As U.S. farmers continue spraying, residual levels of 2,4-D and other herbicides have been detected near schools across the United States, as reported by the nonprofit media outlet Investigate Midwest. With growing empathy for chemical poisoning victims worldwide, this situation is ethically intolerable.
By Martin J. Frid, Co-chair Consumers Union of Japan