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The American War on Vietnam was the most devastating war yet known. Although it ended in 1975 it left a terrible legacy which has travelled down the years to the present day for the people, its forests and its land.
Despite this the country has made remarkable progress in many fields since and despite the international embargo that ended in 1994. However, it will take many more years of support, and international aid to overcome the legacy of Agent Orange one of the chemicals used in that war.
Our campaigns seeking justice for the victims of Agent Orange has led to Len Aldis being invited to speak at a number of universities in the UK and in Vietnam. He has also spoken on the issue at public meetings in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France and Vietnam.
In addition, we have shown international award winning documentary films on Agent Orange such as “Battle’s Poison Cloud”, produced by Tambuti Films of London. “Path to Justice”, Vietnam Film Centre and in which Len appeared. Another film “Agent Orange” a personal requiem” by Masako Sakata has recently been released as has “The Last Ghost of War” by an American company, Janet Gardner Group.

An Open Letter to British Athletes and the 2012 Olympics.

Friends,

Next year in East London the two Olympics will be held when sportsmen and women from many countries will compete against each other in many fields of sport. This will be an opportunity to meet your competitors and to establish friendships.

Unfortunately, the Stadium, in which the opening and closing ceremonies will take place and field events held, will be stained in blood. This is due to Dow Chemical being given a contract by the London Olympic Committee to surround the stadium with 336 huge panels’ for advertisements. Stained by the blood of innocent people, Dow Chemical was and remains responsible for the manufacture of Agent Orange and Napalm, used extensively on Southern Vietnam from 1961 until 1971, resulting in the deaths of many thousands of Vietnamese and causing many thousands more to suffer from various illnesses and deformities.

Eighty million litres of Agent Orange/Dioxin was sprayed by US forces that destroyed thousands of acres of Forests and the animal life within, poisoned the lakes and streams and in turn the fishes.

In my yearly visit to Vietnam from 1989, I have seen the jars at the Tu Du Hospital that contain the foetus of abnormal births. Have also met with children born with missing limbs, eyes etc, with twisted bodies due to Spina Bifida, and Dow refuses to accept responsibility or make any compensation to these tragic victims.

This is the same company that bought United Carbide responsible for the horrific toxic gas leak causing the deaths of over 15,000 people of Bhopal in India. Today in Bhopal there are 100,000 still suffering from the effects of that explosion, and as with the Vietnamese of which there are four million still suffering, Dow refuses to accept responsibility or make any compensation.

Friends, it is into that Stadium that you will march and compete during the period of the two Olympic Games, in a stadium surrounded by a curtain of shame made by Dow Chemical. Ask the athletes from the US, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Vietnam about Agent Orange whose relatives may have served in the Vietnam War, and became affected by Agent Orange?

You might also consider this, in a letter to Lord Coe asking for the contract to be cancelled there were signatures of twenty-three MPs and twenty-one Indian athletes who took part in previous Olympics. There are reports that some Indian athletes if not all will boycott the Olympics if the Dow contract goes ahead.

Yours sincerely

Len Aldis. Secretary

Dear Friends and Readers,

You may know that from July 27 until September 2012 the Olympic and Paralympic Games will be held in London, part of the Olympic complex is in my borough of Tower Hamlets. The athletes from many countries will be welcomed by all who support the idea of the Olympic Games.

However, I and many thousands here and in other countries were appalled on reading the news that the International Olympic Committee (IOC), supported by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) headed by Lord Coe, has made an international company namely Dow Chemical a sponsor of the Games from this year until 2020.

The decision has lead to many protests and letters calling for the sponsorship to be cancelled.

Dow Chemical is one of 34 American companies responsible for the deaths of many thousands of innocents, including unborn babies, and have left millions with horrific injuries and deformities, in Vietnam alone there are near to four million today suffering from the effects of these companies Agent Orange, Dow was also responsible for the manufacture of Napalm.

In the following pages you can read the letters I have sent to Lord Coe, Princess Anne and others protesting at the appointment of Dow Chemical as a sponsor and calling for it to be cancelled, you will also see photographs of the Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange, some taken during my visits to Vietnam.

I hope on reading you will join with me in protesting to your MP, MEP, other elected representatives calling for Dow Chemical’s sponsorship to be cancelled.

Yours sincerely

Len Aldis. Secretary. BVFS

22 August 2011

Lord S. Coe
One Churchill Place
Canary Wharf
London E14 5LN

STOP THIS COVER UP BY DOW.

Dear Lord Coe,

I have recently returned – 17th August - from my yearly visit to Vietnam – my first being in 1989. I had been invited to take part in the international conference commemorating the 50th anniversary of the spraying of Agent Orange by US Forces over areas of Southern Vietnam. The spraying lasted for ten-years from 10th August 1961.

While in Hanoi I picked up the news via BBC, that the Chemical company Dow will be placing a fabric wrap around the Olympic Stadium. To state I was shocked would be an understatement, I was, and remain, horrified that you and your committee have allowed this company, that was responsible, along with others such as Monsanto, for thousands of abnormal births of Vietnamese to be associated with the Olympics is frankly a disgrace.

In March 1989 I saw a number of the abnormal births in their jars on shelves at the Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. That sight has remained with me to this day. In each of my visits since I have met and spoken to victims of Agent Orange and to their parents, in many of the provinces of Vietnam. I am not ashamed to say, I have been brought to tears on seeing some of these tragic people, many are young children, teenagers whose only crime was to be born years after the spraying stopped in 1971 and the war itself in 1975. Yet still today, 50 years on the poison created by Dow and Monsanto lingers in the bodies of over four million Vietnamese, and has now entered into the fourth generation. How many more generations will be affected is unknown.

To allow Dow Chemical to cover up the stadium in which participants from many countries will come to take part in the Spirit of the Olympics competing against each other rather than killing each other on the battlefield is the height of obscenity.

Mr Keith Wiggins Dow's UK Managing Director is quoted in the BBC report as stating: "Dow would be judged by what it did in the future, not the awful legacies of the past." tell that Mr Wiggins, to the millions of Vietnamese parents whose sons and daughters your company killed and crippled by the use of Agent Orange. Tell them why 50 years after its use, Dow Chemical plus Monsanto still refuse to neither apologise, or accept responsibility nor make any compensation to the Vietnamese still suffering today. Not one cent has these companies paid. Your company Mr Wiggins will be judged by its actions and until you and Monsanto accept the guilt for the crimes your company committed they will stand condemned and rightly so.

Lord Coe, you have allowed the company to deface the stadium with its panels... What will be displayed on them? I have many photographs of the Vietnamese, from six-months old babies with deformed feet and fingers fused into a ball. I have photographs of a family of five all blind. Other children minus a limb, some two, would you want Dow Chemical to display these on their panels? I think not.

Finally, let me inform you and your committee that although the spraying was carried out by US Forces, some US, Australian, New Zealand, South Korean who served in Vietnam were, and are also affected, they have come down with illnesses as have their children. Participants from these countries as well as from Vietnam will take part in the Olympics and use the Stadium that will have a Cover made by Dow Chemical. It would be an obscenity for this to be allowed.

I urge you to cancel the Cover Up by Dow Chemical. It is not too late.

Yours sincerely
Len Aldis
Secretary

C.C to: Olympic Development Agency

PS. I contacted my MP Mr Jim Fitzpatrick by email while in Hanoi and he has taken this up with a letter to Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State fro Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport. I am waiting for his reply.

Will also be raising this with the Mayor of Tower Hamlets, the borough in which I live, and others including the media.

17 September 2011

HRH. The Princess Royal
Buckingham Palace
London
SW1A 1AA

Ref: Dow Chemical and Olympic Stadium

Your Royal Highness,

While in Hanoi a few weeks ago I received the news via the BBC that Dow Chemical had been given the contract to install 336 panels 25 x2.5 metres around the Olympic Stadium to be used for advertisements.

I was shocked at this news and remain so. I had during my stay in Vietnam visited a few hospitals and special events where I met a number of youngsters, a few six-months old babies, each affected by Agent Orange a chemical herbicide used on Vietnam by US Forces. I had been invited to attend an international conference on this subject to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the first spraying of Agent Orange on the country 10th August 1961.

Dow Chemical was one of 35 US Companies that manufactured Agent Orange, incidentally 80 million litres was sprayed on 25% of Southern Vietnam over a period of ten-years. The result? Thousands of abnormal births, many thousands died in the wombs of their mothers. Those that survived suffer from various illnesses and horrific deformities. In my first visit in 1989 and my yearly visits since, I have met and spoken to hundreds of these tragic victims.

What is most upsetting is to meet with youngsters born years after the war ended in 1975. These are innocents, yet they suffer as a result of a weapon used during the war. And Dow Chemical is responsible.

Your Royal Highness to allow Dow Chemical to have a contract to install these panels – I call it a Curtain of Shame – would be a disgrace, and an insult to the victims affected by Agent Orange.

Next year the Olympic Games will be with us and into the stadium will walk athletes from amongst others, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and The United States. Each of these countries sent forces to fight in Vietnam, while there they too were affected by Agent Orange.

It is very possible that the athletes from the above countries will have relatives affected. For the Vietnamese it has gone into the fourth generation, how many more generations will be affected is unknown.

Your Royal Highness, I am asking you as a member of the International Olympic Committee and other committees connected to the London Olympics to use what influence you have to cancel the contract given to Dow Chemical.

This company was also responsible for the manufacture of Napalm a weapon extensively used on Vietnam; you may recall the photograph of a young Vietnamese girl (Kim) running naked down a road burning with Napalm.

Dow Chemical must not be allowed this contract.

Yours sincerely
Len Aldis
Secretary

Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society
Flat 2, 26 Tomlins Grove, London E3 4NX
Secretary: Len Aldis
Tel: 020 8980 7146. Mobile: 0779 657 1017
e-mail: lenaldis@yahoo.co.uk; www.lenaldis.co.uk
Skype: Len.Aldis

November 2011

An Open Letter to the Mayors hosting the 2012 Olympics.

Next year in East London the two Olympics will be held when sportsmen and women from many countries will compete against each other in many fields of sport, a great opportunity to meet athletes from various countries and to establish friendships.

Unfortunately, the Stadium, in which the opening and closing ceremonies will take place and field events held, will be stained in blood. This is due to Dow Chemical being given a contract by the London Olympic Committee to surround the stadium with 336 huge panels’ for advertisements. Stained by the blood of innocent people, Dow Chemical was, and remains, responsible for the manufacture of Agent Orange and Napalm, used extensively on Southern Vietnam from 1961 until 1971, resulting in the deaths of many thousands of Vietnamese and causing many thousands more to suffer from various illnesses and deformities.

Eighty million litres of Agent Orange/Dioxin was sprayed by US forces that destroyed thousands of acres of Forests and the animal life within, poisoned the lakes and streams and in turn the fishes.

In my yearly visit to Vietnam from 1989, I have seen the jars at the Tu Du Hospital that contain the foetus of abnormal births. Have also met with children born with missing limbs, eyes etc, with twisted bodies due to Spina Bifida, and Dow refuses to accept responsibility or make any compensation to these tragic victims.

This is the same company that bought United Carbide, a company responsible for the horrific toxic gas leak causing the deaths of over 15,000 people of Bhopal in India. Today in Bhopal there are 100,000 still suffering from the effects of that explosion, and as with the Vietnamese of which there are four million still suffering, Dow refuses to accept responsibility or make any compensation.

Friends, it is into that Stadium that the athletes will march and compete during the period of the two Olympic Games, in a stadium surrounded by a curtain of shame made by Dow Chemical. Ask the athletes from the US, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Vietnam about Agent Orange whose relatives may have served in the Vietnam War, and became affected by Agent Orange?

You might also consider this, in a letter to Lord Coe asking for the contract to be cancelled there were signatures of twenty-three MPs and twenty-one Indian athletes who took part in previous Olympics. There are reports that some Indian athletes, if not all, will boycott the Olympics if the Dow contract goes ahead.

Yours sincerely

Len Aldis. Secretary

Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society
Flat 2, 26 Tomlins Grove, London E3 4NX
Secretary: Len Aldis
Tel: 0208 980 7146. Mobile: 0779 657 1017
e-mail: lenaldis@yahoo.co.uk; www.lenaldis.co.uk
www.aoag.org; Skype: Len.Aldis

29th March 2012

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

Dear Mr Nguyen Danh Thai,

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.”

Yours in friendship

Britain-Vietnam Friendship Society
Flat 2, 26 Tomlins Grove, London E3 4NX
Secretary: Len Aldis
Tel: 0208 980 7146. Mobile: 0779 657 1017
e-mail: lenaldis@yahoo.co.uk; www.lenaldis.co.uk
Skype: Len.Aldis

AN OPEN LETTER
TO ALL COMMITTEE MEMBERS
OF THE LONDON OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES

Lord Coe. Chair; Sir Keith Mills, Deputy Chair; HRH the Princess Royal; Charles Allen;
Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari; Sir Phillip Craven; Paul Deighton, Chief Exe; Jonathan Edwards;
Tony Hall; Andrew Hunt; Justin King; Stephen Lovegrove; Adam Penglly; Tim Reddish;
Lord Moynihan; Sir Craig Reedie; Martin Stewart; Sir Robin Wales. Mayor of Newham; Neil Wood.

In a few weeks, unless you take action, the Olympic Stadium will have been surrounded by a wrap comprising 336 giant panels made by a company responsible for deaths of many thousands, including thousands of babies that died in their mother’s womb. Responsible for the deaths of many more thousands of those that lived for just a few months.

That company is Dow Chemical, whose record was known to each and everyone of you through the many court cases it has had brought against them in the United States for disposing of tonnes of highly toxic waste into rivers and lakes near its plants. For lawsuits brought by American Vietnam Veterans and Vietnamese suffering from the effects of Agent Orange.

But let me remind each of you, the biggest crime of Dow Chemical was its part, along with 35 other U.S. Chemical Companies, headed by Monsanto, in manufacturing Agent Orange used with devastating effect on Southern Vietnam for a period of TEN-YEARS, yes, TEN-YEARS. 80 million litres of the chemical was sprayed over the forests, crops, hamlets and the PEOPLE themselves, from August 1961 to 1971, resulting in the deaths mentioned above.

Through the use of Agent Orange, Dow Chemical and the others have left a legacy that today in Vietnam affects four million. It has also entered into the fourth generation. From my first visit in 1989 and each year since, I have met and seen many of these tragic victims, of all ages, from new born babies that are minus feet and sometimes hand, young children suffering from water on the brain, and their heads four-times the normal size where their illness is slowly crushing the brain that ends in death.

I have met with youngsters minus a limb, some minus two; some will be confined to a bed or wheelchair for the rest of their lives unable to fend for themselves. In Dong Nai I met a mother and her two daughters both unable to move or speak but just lay on their bed, the mother looks after them and their needs and has done so for 42 years, the age of her eldest daughter, the other daughter is 36 years. I could describe more of the people I have met over the past 22 years. But what angers me more is when I see children affected that were born after the spraying stopped in 1971 and long after the ward ended in 1975.

This is what Dow Chemicals has done to the people of Vietnam, and each of you have seemed fit to support the appointment of the company to be a sponsor of the Games that opens in London on 27th July despite the many objections made by people from a number of countries.

Shame on you all.

Len Aldis. Secretary