On Memorial Day: Monsanto's Unpaid Debt to US Veterans

 New Years Eve 2010, and the body of John P. Wheeler is found in a dump in Delaware. The cause of death is ruled a homicide. Wheeler was returning from Washington, D.C. His family didn't know precisely why, or when to expect him to return.
Who is Wheeler? A respected Army Officer and Vietnam Veteran who served as the guiding force and Chair of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund from 1979 - 1989. Not only was that the time period during which "The Wall" was being planned and implemented...it was the height of the Agent Orange Trial.

Turn back the Clock:
By the mid 1980s, a class-action suit launched by Vietnam Vets against Monsanto, Dow, Diamond Shamrock, and a few smaller chemical companies had hit the federal court system. All these companies were involved in producing Agent Orange, a defoliating agent designed to strip the jungle of vegetation. In the process, the breakdown of the constituent chemicals of the substance (Di- and Trichlorophenoxyacetic Acid, otherwise known as 2,4 D and 2,4,5 T for short) created Dioxin. Vietnam Vets exposed to the substance suffered everything from severe skin rashes (chloracne) to cancer and death...and their children experienced a range of horrible birth defects.
John "Jack" Wheeler was instrumental in demanding medical treatment for, and focusing attention on, Veterans health issues - especially those affected by Agent Orange.
I know. I worked for Dean, Falanga & Rose, one of the law firms that represented the Veterans at the time. My job involved reading through the deposition of Monsanto officials...and tracing how much the company officials actually knew about the poison they were selling. And how much the government knew about the poison they were buying and dumping on American soldiers. It was Ugly.

Specifically, my job was to read through the depositions that had been taken of Monsanto executives and employees, to try and create a ‘chain’ of information: precisely who in the company knew what, and when did they know it, and who did they tell and when?  In creating this chain of information, I was handling sensitive material – and required to sign a life-long gag order that I would never reveal the contents of what I found.

Too bad.  Here goes.

In 1948, there was an explosion in Monsanto’s herbicide factory in Wheeling, West Virginia.  Workers there were exposed to the herbicide that came to be known later as “Agent Orange” (due to the fact that it was shipped to Vietnam in Orange color-coded drums). 

Monsanto followed up on the health effects on their workers, and quickly discovered both short-term and long-term effects.  The short-term effects included horrible skin conditions (known as chloracne) and open, weeping sores and skin cancers.  The long-term effects included deformities to internal organs, not only among the workers exposed, but even worse among the children they fathered in subsequent years. That didn’t stop them from producing the herbicide, or from selling it for killing weeds along railroad tracks around the United States (one of its most common applications).

When the Vietnam War escalated, Monsanto – along with Dow, Diamond Shamrock, and some smaller companies – supplied the military with Agent Orange, promising that it would be an effective substance to spray on the jungle canopy.  By defoliating the jungle, they argued, soldier’s lives would be saved because the Viet Cong would be unable to hide beneath the thick vegetation.

The only problem, of course, was the nagging possibility that someone might find out about the toxic effect the substance has on human beings.

During the early “discovery phases” of the trial, Monsanto needed to find an out, or else be responsible for billions of dollars of damages visited upon soldiers and their families as the defoliant rained down from the sky on them.  So early in this phase, Monsanto invited  supposed “rival” chemical companies Dow and Diamond Shamrock (who also produced the substance) to strategy sessions to find a way to avoid taking  responsibility for the damages they caused.  In what can only be described as brazen arrogance that they were above the law, they actually took minutes of these meetings.

I read these minutes.

Under US law, if the US Government knew that Agent Orange was dangerous when they bought it, then Monsanto was off the hook. But Monsanto never informed the Pentagon of the dangers.

Instead, they created an almost foolproof defense:  they sought to show that “someone,” “somewhere” (anywhere) in the federal government knew it was dangerous, and would then use that information to claim that they were off the hook.

They discovered that in a laboratory in Virginia, the United States Department of Agriculture became aware that mice grew small tumors and produced deformed offspring when exposed to Agent Orange.

And on that, they hung their entire defense:  they argued that because a federal government lab technician in the Department of Agriculture knew there was potential danger, that they did not have to reveal to the Department of Defense that such dangers existed; they argued that the federal Government already ‘knew’ of the danger when they bought it, and they, therefore, were off the hook.

Anyone who knows anything about bureaucracy knows that rarely do people in the same office share information; trading information across agencies (such as from Agriculture to Defense) is unheard of.

On that disgustingly insincere shred of defense, the attorneys representing the veterans – who received 1/3 of any settlement monies -  folded their hands and threw in their cards.  They accepted an out of court settlement whereby veterans received pennies for the dollars of their damages.

In rage, I quit the law firm that day and never returned to the profession. I started driving a tractor trailer.

Back to Jack Wheeler.

As the years rolled on,  Jack Wheeler would go on to serve multiple Presidential administrations. At one point, he authored a document on the US Military's use of Biochemical weapons, including Agent Orange.  The document concluded that the US must never employ these substances, and explained their history. At the time, the US Army was in the process of  releasing a stockpiled arsenal full of the stuff in Arkansas. Massive bird kills and fish kills had raised the attention of the public and the press.
Sometime after Dec 28, 2010, after meeting with officials in Washington, Jack Wheeler left Washington DC on a train for his home in Delaware. He never got home. The experienced Army officer was ambushed, killed, and his body later found dumped in a landfill.

Memorial Day, Indeed . .  .