AN OPEN LETTER: To Mr Nguyen Danh Thai, Chairman and members of the Olympic & Paralympic Committee of Vietnam

Why has the Olympic Committee of Vietnam remained silent on the issue of Dow Chemicals involvement with the Olympics?

(LONDON) - The following is an Open Letter by Len Aldis, who served as Secretary, for the Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society, and Chairman, for the Agent Orange Action Group.

The letter is to Mr Nguyen Danh Thai, Chairman and members of the Olympic & Paralympic Committee of Vietnam.

In a few weeks time from date of this letter, athletes from many countries will be preparing to make their way to my country to take part in both of these international Games. On behalf of the BVFS we welcome them all and in particular those from Vietnam and hope that they will take the opportunity to meet with athletes from many other countries and in so doing establish links of friendship and understanding, the prime aim in my view, of the Olympics.

But I raise with you as I did when I wrote to you in September and later emailed you - unfortunately I have yet to receive a reply – the news that Dow Chemical, has been made a sponsor of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games, and other Olympic Games until 2020.

In August last year while in Hanoi attending the International conference held by VAVA on the 50th anniversary of the use of Agent Orange on Vietnam, I received the news that Dow Chemicals, one of the companies that manufactured Agent Orange and incidentally Napalm, had been made a sponsor of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, further they had been given a £7 million pound contract to surround the Olympic Stadium with 336 giant panels for advertisements including their Logo. Due to pressure by many, they have agreed to drop their logo. However, that is not enough, the contract itself must.be cancelled.

I need not inform you or your committee of the devastating effect that the 80 million litres of Agent Orange/Dioxin sprayed on Southern Vietnam in a ten-year period from 1961, had on the people, forests and land of your country, as well as the horrific injuries and destruction that Napalm caused. The legacy that Agent Orange brought to the people of Vietnam is on record and the present four million affected today are a living record of that legacy. The photograph of the young Vietnamese girl Kim running naked down a road in Vietnam with her skin burning with Napalm remains in the memory of millions who saw her. The conjoined twins Duc and Viet is another, and there are many other photographs I could show you.

In my yearly visits to Vietnam since 1989 I have travelled to many provinces, met and spoken to numerous victims of Agent Orange, at times it has been a heart-breaking experience for me especially when the victims are children and youngsters, they have become my friends and I feel duty bound to speak on their behalf at Dow Chemical being made a sponsor of the Olympic Games.

The effects of Agent Orange has now entered into the fourth generation and so why, I ask myself, why has the Olympic Committee of Vietnam remained silent on the issue of Dow Chemicals involvement with the Olympics? When athletes from America, Canada and Indian, have protested at Dow being involved and called on their respective Olympic committee’s to demand that Dow Chemical be dropped as a sponsor. The open letter to all athletes by the Canadian and American swimmers was a brilliant exposure of the crimes committed by Dow, yet the country on which Agent Orange was used over a period of TEN-YEARS remains SILENT…

Individuals, organisations including those who supported Vietnam during the war and know the crimes committed by Dow Chemical have added their support by writing to the International Olympic and the London Olympic Committee calling for Dow Chemical to be dropped as a sponsor of the Games. Yet your committee remains SILENT.

Only a few weeks ago, I took a letter from Mr Nguyen Van Rinh, a member of Vietnam’s National Assembly and also President of Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA), to the office of Lord Coe, Chairman of the London Olympic Committee, the letter added his voice to those of all the Vietnamese suffering from Agent Orange in calling for Dow Chemical to be dropped as a sponsor of the Games. Yet, the voice of your committee remains SILENT.

Mr Nguyen Danh Thai, this is no time to be silent, this is the time for action and for your committee to say in a loud clear voice: “We speak on behalf of the four million Vietnamese suffering today from Agent Orange, and all others from other lands also affected, when we demand that Dow Chemical must not continue as a sponsor of the London Olympic and Paralympic Games. Justice demands this.”