Decades after end of Vietnam War, US begins Agent Orange clean-up

U.S. construction representatives, diplomats and reporters tour a dioxin-contaminated at Danang airport, a former U.S. air base, during a ceremony of the joint U.S.-Vietnam Dioxin Cleaning Project on Thursday.

HANOI, Vietnam -- Nearly four decades after the end of the Vietnam War, the United States and Vietnam on Thursday began cleaning up the toxic chemical Agent Orange on part of Danang International Airport.

The U.S. military sprayed up to 12 million gallons of the defoliant onto Vietnam's jungles over a 10-year period during the war, and the question of compensation for the subsequent health problems is a major post-war issue.