P.M. BRIEFING : Agent Orange Suit Aids 2 Vet Units

An agency that provides legal advice to disadvantaged Vietnam veterans and another that enables veterans to participate in the Outward Bound program were among eight social service groups awarded grants today from the settlement of the Agent Orange lawsuit.

The eight grants, totaling $581,000, are the first of many to be allocated from a $52-million fund over the next seven to 10 years. The money is part of a $240-million settlement of a class-action suit brought more than 10 years ago by veterans who claimed that exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange during the Vietnam War caused cancer, birth defects in their children and other illnesses.