Agent Orange Bill Is Signed in Chemical Warfare Threat

President Bush on Wednesday signed legislation to compensate Vietnam War veterans exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange, ending two decades of official ambivalence.

Bush praised the “men and women who stood where duty required them to stand” as he signed the measure, which permanently extends disability benefits to Vietnam veterans suffering from two types of cancer presumed to be caused by the herbicide: non-Hodgkins’ lymphoma and soft-tissue sarcoma.

Bush also signed legislation to give veterans a 5.4% cost-of-living benefit increase.

For years, the government said there was no link between the chemical defoliant, which U.S. troops sprayed over the Vietnamese jungle, and a variety of diseases. As recently as 1990, Congress killed a bill similar to the one that Bush signed.

The measure’s sponsors said fears that Iraq will use chemical weapons in the Gulf War helped to break a congressional deadlock over the new measure, which won unanimous approval in both the House and the Senate.

The bill makes permanent Veterans Affairs Secretary Edward J. Derwinski’s directive that made those suffering from either of the two types of cancer eligible for permanent disability benefits. Their survivors also would be entitled to the benefits.

Veterans who developed chloracne, a severe form of acne, within a year of their service in Vietnam also would be eligible for benefits.