Advocacy and Exchange Program on Agent Orange

About the Program

The Aspen Institute Advocacy and Exchange Program on Agent Orange/Dioxin is a multi-year project to help Americans and Vietnamese address the continuing health and environmental impact of herbicides sprayed in Vietnam during the war. The program promotes dialogue within the US policy community, and between the United States and Vietnam, on solutions to the continuing impact of the wartime use of herbicides in Vietnam. Since 2007, we have worked closely with the Ford Foundation in its effort to face and resolve the Agent Orange/Dioxin legacy that remains an enduring and tragic result of American involvement in the Vietnam War.

The program takes a two-pronged approach. First, through meetings and policy briefs, it will promote discussion within the US policy community about dioxin in Vietnam and solutions to stem its continuing impact. Second, the program will strengthen US-Vietnamese cooperation on this issue by assisting the U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin. The group has identified ways to deal with the most pressing of the human and environmental consequences of the U.S. military's defoliation campaign. This bipartisan, non-governmental initiative is comprised of distinguished policy makers, scientists, and nonprofit and business leaders. With Susan Berresford serving as convener of the group, the Vietnamese side is lead by Ambassador Ngo Quang Xuan, vice chair of the Vietnamese National Assembly's Foreign Affairs Committee, and leading the U.S. side is Walter Isaacson, president and CEO of the Aspen Institute.

For more information of the US-Vietnam Dialogue Group, visit the Ford Foundation's website.

For More Information Contact: James Hoppes, The Aspen Institute, One Dupont Circle NW, Suite 700, Washington, DC 20036. james.hoppes@aspeninstitute.org, 215 887-3815