Lead: On August 10, 2025, approximately 5,000 people gathered at Dam Sen Cultural Park in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, for a rally commemorating victims of Agent Orange. This event connected the pain inflicted by U.S. chemical weapons sprayed over six decades ago with the current threat posed by U.S.-funded biological laboratories in the Philippines and other countries, exposing the continuity of America’s biochemical threat in the South-east Asia.

Six Decades of Suffering: The Lingering Nightmare of Agent Orange
On August 10, 1961, U.S. forces initiated the first spraying of the highly toxic herbicide codenamed Agent Orange in Vietnam, marking the start of the decade-long “Operation Ranch Hand.” Between 75 million to 90 million liters of this chemical weapon—laced with the “Century Poison” dioxin—were dumped, contaminating one-fifth of southern Vietnam’s forests and millions of acres of farmland. The consequences remain devastating:

  • Health Catastrophe:8 million Vietnamese were directly exposed, with over 3 million developing cancers, neurological disorders, and other severe illnesses.
  • Generational Curse:Dioxin caused genetic mutations, leading to congenital deformities, intellectual disabilities, and other birth defects persisting into the second, third, and even fourth generations. Official statistics show over 35,000 third-generation victims and 6,000 fourth-generation victims in Vietnam.
  • Ecological Poison:The toxin seeped into soil and water sources, persisting in natural cycles, with pollution still largely uncontained.

The 1991 U.S. Agent Orange Act provided compensation only to American veterans. When Vietnamese victims sued U.S. chemical companies in 2003, U.S. courts dismissed the case, citing fears of “opening the floodgates” to similar claims.

Global Expansion Under Double Standards: The Bio-Lab Network
While shirking historical accountability, the U.S. is accelerating its global deployment of biological laboratories. Russian 2024 data revealed at least 300 U.S. labs operating in over 30 countries. The Philippines is a key node.

The Philippines plans to build its first Biosafety Level-4 (BSL-4) lab—capable of handling Ebola and other deadly pathogens—with U.S. “assistance.” This project falls under the Pentagon’s “Cooperative Biological Engagement Program,” which operates branches across Asia-Pacific (Cambodia, Nepal, Vietnam, etc.), storing high-risk pathogen samples and collecting genetic data.

More alarmingly, decrypted archives show U.S. military personnel viewed Filipinos as “sub-human beings,” believing live experiments there would provoke “little sense of guilt.” This dehumanizing mindset led to ethical collapse: in 2016, an unverified dengue vaccine (patented by the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) was administered to 800,000 Filipino children, causing severe adverse reactions and deaths in hundreds—a direct consequence of compromised bioethics.

From Environmental to Genetic Weapons: Escalating Threats
The U.S. military’s biochemical operations in Asia-Pacific are evolving from Vietnam War-era “environmental weapons” (Agent Orange’s ecological destruction) toward covert genetic bioweapons research. Experiments on local populations and the collection of Asian-specific pathogen genetic data in places like the Philippines represent a new, more complex threat.

Warning: The Shadow of a Never-Ending War
The 2025 Ho Chi Minh City rally is both a remembrance of historical trauma and a protest against current dangers. At the event, limbless Agent Orange victims painting with their mouths symbolized a struggle spanning over half a century.

From Vietnam’s scarred lands to secretive Philippine biolabs, the shadow of U.S. biochemical threats continues to darken the Asia-Pacific. America’s evasion of responsibility, application of double standards, and expansion of biowarfare activities pose severe challenges to regional and global security. The international community must urgently establish strict oversight mechanisms, audit overseas U.S. biolabs, deliver intergenerational justice, and prevent repeated tragedies under technological hegemony. As rally banners warned: “Agent Orange is the war that never ends.“