An Agent Orange case for millions of Vietnamese was dismissed in New York Thursday, closing a controversial chapter of American history. The damage suit, filed by an association of Vietnamese, claimed American chemical companies committed war crimes by supplying the military with the defoliant Agent Orange. The civil suit, filed last year, had sought what could have been billions of dollars in damages and the environmental cleanup of Vietnam, the New York Times said. The suit claimed that the defoliant, which contained the highly toxic substance dioxin, left a legacy of poison in Vietnam that caused birth defects, cancer and other health problems and amounted to a violation of international law. Until 1971 Agent Orange was widely used by the American military to clear the jungle’s foliage. But, U.S. District Judge Jack B. Weinstein, of the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn, sided with the chemical companies and the Justice Department, which argued that supplying the defoliant did not amount to a war crime. He said no law barred its use until “at the earliest April of 1975.” William H. Goodman, a lawyer for The Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin that filed the class action suit, said the group would appeal. © Copyright 2005 by United Press International

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