http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE1DE1130F933A2575BC0A966958260&n=Top/Reference/Times%20Topics/Subjects/V/Vietnam%20War By KEITH SCHNEIDER, SPECIAL TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
Published: August 10, 1990
LEAD: After 14 months of investigation, a House committee concluded
today that the Reagan Administration had obstructed a $43 million
Federal health study of Vietnam veterans exposed to the defoliant
Agent Orange, causing the study's cancellation.
After 14 months of investigation, a House committee concluded today
that the Reagan Administration had obstructed a $43 million Federal
health study of Vietnam veterans exposed to the defoliant Agent
Orange, causing the study's cancellation.
A panel of Federal officials and scientists halted the study in
1987, saying it was scientifically impossible to establish the
levels of exposure for individual veterans.
But the House committee, after reviewing evidence from the National
Academy of Sciences, the Defense Department and the Centers for
Disease Control who had participated in the health study, said
military records could be used to identify veterans exposed to Agent
Orange.
A spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control, which had been
supervising the study, said today that the agency had not seen the
House report and was not prepared to respond.
Fear of Liability Cited
The report, by the House Government Operations Committee, said the
White House feared that if a health study found a link between the
veterans' exposure to Agent Orange and any illnesses the Government
could be liable for billions of dollars in compensation claims.
Veterans who say their injuries or illnesses were caused by Agent
Orange do not now receive compensation from the Government.
While most Republicans on the committee supported the report, 6 of
the 15 Republican members disagreed with the conclusions. In a
dissenting report, they said ample evidence existed to conclude that
the health study was canceled solely on scientific grounds, and
called the report an ''ideological assault upon a Republican White
House.''
The report is the latest aspect of a scientific and political
struggle over Agent Orange that has periodically engulfed Federal
health and environmental agencies, Congress, veterans' groups and
the courts since the issue arose in 1978.
The report was based on an investigation by Representative Ted
Weiss, a Manhattan Democrat who is chairman of the committee's
Subcommittee on Human Resources.
Agent Orange, a herbicide widely used by American forces to destroy
cover and crops used by Communist troops in the Vietnam War,
contained trace amounts of dioxin, a chemical compound known to
cause tumors and birth defects in laboratory animals.
Vietnam veterans exposed to it believe Agent Orange caused numerous
illnesses and birth deformities. Last week the American Legion and
Vietnam Veterans of America filed separate lawsuits in Federal
District Court here against two Federal health agencies and the
Department of Veterans Affairs for failing to complete the health
study of Vietnam veterans.
In 1979 Congress passed a law ordering the Veterans Administration,
the precursor of the Department of Veterans Affairs, to make the
first comprehensive assessment of the health of veterans exposed to
Agent Orange. A vital facet of the study was a project to review
military records and locate troop movements through regions sprayed
with Agent Orange.
The V.A. was unable to develop the protocols for conducting the
health study, and in 1982 Congress transferred the research to the
Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.
Records Termed Inadequate
According to the committee report, the White House began to direct
essential aspects of the C.D.C. study through the Agent Orange
Working Group, a 34-member panel of Federal scientists and health
officials established in the Carter Administration who reviewed
studies of Vietnam-era defoliants.
The most important decision of the panel was its determination in
1987 that the Pentagon's records on troop movements in areas that
had been sprayed with Agent Orange were not adequate for conducting
the study. Gaps and flaws in the records, the panel said, made it
impossible to accurately measure a soldier's exposure to the
defoliant.
But the House report concluded that such measurements were possible.
The report said, ''The White House was deeply concerned that the
Federal Government would be placed in the position of paying
compensation to veterans suffering diseases related to Agent Orange,
and feared that providing help to Vietnam veterans would set the
precedent of having the U.S. compensate civilian victims of toxic
contaminant exposure, too.''
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