The US government’s donation of US$400,000 for a US$1 million study into removing poisonous chemicals and cleaning up a site in Da Nang is welcomed, it is a very small step, said Len Aldis, General Secretary of the UK-Vietnam Friendship Association. He described this as a very small step – and long overdue – on the long road to the eradication of the legacy left by the use of millions of litres of agent orange and other chemicals used and sprayed by the US.

In his letter to the Vietnam News Agency’s bureau in London, Len Aldis said: “Today in Vietnam there are over three million living victims including new - born babies, suffering from illness, many with severe disabilities caused through Agent Orange.”

“Of what benefit to them will be the US$400,000 or the US$1 million,” he stressed.

VOVNews/VNA