American Notes Veterans

Vietnam veterans won another skirmish last week in the battle over Agent Orange, but the government continues to hold its ground. For 14 years now, veterans' groups have charged that the herbicide used to defoliate the jungle canopy was toxic to soldiers. More than 35,000 have filed claims for diseases like cancer and birth defects in their children. Last week the Department of Veterans Affairs announced that a limited number of vets who contracted peripheral neuropathy, a nervous disease that causes numbness and tingling, within 10 years of their service will be allowed disability payments of up to $1,620 a month.

That marked the second victory this year: in February the VA awarded similar payments to vets with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and soft-tissue sarcoma, two forms of cancer. But the government continues to reject claims that Agent Orange causes lung cancer, and veterans argue that the VA imposes so many restrictions that few survivors will actually benefit.