Agent Orange Linked to Risk of Parkinson's, Heart Disease

US will join decontamination effort early next year

(AP) - Vietnam today started the first phase of a joint plan with former enemy the United States to clean up environmental damage leftover from the chemical defoliant Agent Orange, a lasting legacy from the Vietnam War. Vietnam's Ministry of Defense will begin sweeping areas around the Danang airport, a former US military base in central Vietnam where the herbicide was stored, for unexploded ordnance. The US Agency for International Development will then assist in removing dioxin from soil and sediment at the site. It marks the first time the two sides will work together on the ground to clean up contamination. More»

Deadly defoliant could be wreaking damage on Southern Korean health

(AP) - Some 33 years after they buried up to 250 rusting 55-gallon barrels stamped "Agent Compound Orange" in a South Korean ditch, three American soldiers are pointing US and South Korean authorities to the location of the dumping ground. Their story has set off a media firestorm in South Korea, fueling worries among people near US military base Camp Carroll about groundwater safety, cancer, and land prices. "This is a burden I've carried around for" three decades, says Steve House, 54. "It's bugging the hell out of me. I don't want to take this to my grave." More»

Government promises inquiry after newspaper's probe

(NEWSER) - Canada used Agent Orange, the Vietnam War-era chemical linked to genetic defects, as a means of clearing roadside brush until about 1980. A Toronto Star investigation found that Canada’s forestry workers faced exposure to the chemical, poured from planes, starting in the 1950s; the government promises an inquiry, amid allegations that successive administrations covered up the use, notes the Star . More»

Domestic issues must trump unwinnable war: Dem elder statesman

(NEWSER) - When George McGovern hears about President Obama's plans for Afghanistan, he reluctantly reaches an unavoidable conclusion. "I can only think: another Vietnam," the 1972 Democratic presidential nominee writes in the Washington Post . "I hope I am incorrect, but history tells me otherwise." After 9 years at war, he asks: "Why waste these fine soldiers any longer?" More»

Watch clips from Patton to Glory to Full Metal Jacket

(NEWSER) - In honor of Veterans Day, the Huffington Post runs down the best war movies of all time:

• Apocalypse Now: Vietnam War
• From Here to Eternity: Pearl Harbor
• Patton: World War II
• Braveheart: Scotland’s battle for independence
• Lawrence of Arabia: World War I
• Band of Brothers: World War II (and, yes, a mini-series, but a good one)