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Agent Orange cleanup and other efforts critical to ties with Vietnam jeopardized by USAID cuts
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FILE- Attendants sit next to a field contaminated with dioxin before a ceremony marking the start of a project to clean up dioxin left over from the Vietnam War, at a former U.S. military base in Danang, Vietnam, Aug. 9, 2012. - photo by AP Photo/Maika Elan, File
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — At a former American air base in southern Vietnam, work abruptly stopped last month on efforts to clean up tons of soil contaminated with deadly dioxin from the military’s Agent Orange defoliant. The Trump administration's broad cuts to USAID also halted efforts to clear unexploded American munitions and landmines, a rehabilitation program for war victims, and work on a museum exhibit detailing U.S. efforts to remediate the damage of the Vietnam War. In addition to exposing thousands of people to health hazards, the cuts risk jeopardizing hard-won diplomatic gains with Vietnam, which is strategically increasingly important as the U.S. looks for support in its efforts to counter a growingly aggressive China.