Takeaways from the AP's report on how USAID cuts are imperiling Agent Orange cleanup

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.

“It doesn’t help at all,” said Chuck Searcy, an American Vietnam War veteran who has dedicated his time to humanitarian programs in the country for the last three decades. “It is just another example of what a lot of critics want to remind us of: You can’t depend on the Americans. It is not a good message.”

Funding for the cleanup at Bien Hoa Air Base was frozen for about a week and then restored, but it's unclear whether funds are fully flowing or how they’ll be disbursed with no USAID employees left to administer operations, said Tim Rieser, a senior adviser to Sen. Peter Welch, who drafted a letter to administration officials signed by Welch and more than a dozen other Democratic senators urging the continued funding of the programs.

Other programs remain cut.

“They have reversed a number of these arbitrary decisions, but we’re far from out of the woods and we don’t know how this is going to end,” said Rieser, who was retired Sen. Patrick Leahy’s foreign policy aide when the Vermont Democrat secured the original funding for Vietnam War remediation projects.

Cuts come as Vietnam's importance grows

The interruptions to aid comes as the two countries prepare to mark the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War and the 30th anniversary of the normalization of relations between Washington and Hanoi.

The two countries have since been increasing defense and security cooperation as China has become increasingly aggressive in the region. In 2023, Vietnam elevated relations with the U.S. to a comprehensive strategic partnership, the highest level of cooperation and the same as its traditional partners Russia and China.

On Inauguration Day, Trump issued an executive order directing a freeze of foreign assistance funding and a review of all U.S. aid and development work abroad, charging that much of foreign assistance was wasteful and advanced a liberal agenda.

But Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Feb. 7 “underscored the department’s support for ongoing efforts to collaborate on the legacy of war issues,” in his introductory call with his Vietnamese counterpart, according to the Defense Department.

Just 20 days later, the administration ordered all but a fraction of the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, staffers off the job and terminated at least 83% of its contracts and cut programs globally, including in Vietnam.

At Bien Hoa, that halted work to clean up 500,000 cubic meters (650,000 cubic yards) of soil contaminated with Agent Orange, a wartime herbicide that was later found to cause a wide range of health problems including cancer and birth defects.

Next steps unclear, and official answers vague

The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi and USAID referred all questions on the war legacy projects to the State Department in Washington.

In a one-line email, the State Department said that “USAID has three contracts conducting dioxin remediation at Bien Hoa in Vietnam that are active and running.”

Asked to elaborate on how long the Bien Hoa project was shut down and what operations had resumed, as well as the status of other war legacy programs, the State Department said “we have nothing to share on the details of these programs at this time.”

Vietnam’s Defense Ministry referred questions to the Foreign Ministry, which did not respond to requests for comment.

But in a Feb. 13 press conference, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pham Thu Hang expressed concern about what could happen if American funding for war legacy projects, which amounts to some $200 million per year, were to end.

Cuts risk undoing decades of diplomacy to rebuild ties with Vietnam

It’s too early to say exactly how the abrupt decision to then end the funding will affect relations, but it is likely to call into question whether Washington is still a reliable partner in other dealings, said Nguyen Khac Giang, visiting fellow in the Vietnam Studies Program at Singapore’s ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute.

“The level of trust gradually increased and it is very easy to dismantle,” the political scientist said.

Leahy, who retired from the Senate in 2023, told The Associated Press that it had been a lengthy process over the last 35 years to build the relationship by working hand-in-hand with the Vietnamese to address the problems left behind.

“People in the Trump administration who know nothing and care less about these programs are arbitrarily jeopardizing relations with a strategic partner in one of the most challenging regions of the world,” he said in an email.

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Rising reported from Bangkok.