American Notes

Like so much else about the Viet Nam War, the Agent Orange case will never be settled to everyone's satisfaction. Last week U.S. District Judge Jack Weinstein dismissed a suit by seven manufacturers of the defoliant. They had sought to force the Government to contribute to the $180 million fund created for veterans who claimed that exposure to the dioxin-contaminated chemical left them with various ailments and caused birth defects in some of their children. The Government, said the judge, was "within its legal rights in refusing" to pay, since the veterans never proved that the chemical caused their problems. But Weinstein in effect criticized the U.S. for abandoning a moral responsibility. Its "benign detachment," said the judge, "may be cruel to the veterans who served their country." Weinstein pointed out that the companies had "produced at Government request what amounted to critical war supplies." Defense contractors, he said, may require exemption from liability before making such products for the Pentagon in the future.