Agent Orange Settlement - Chemical Companies Pay $180 Million to Veterans Without Admitting Liability - Victims Receive Average $3,800

Seven chemical companies including Dow and Monsanto agree to pay $180 million to thousands of Vietnam veterans exposed to Agent Orange, settling the class action lawsuit out of court just before trial. Monsanto alone pays slightly over 45% of the settlement sum. All seven companies, having been granted immunity as military contractors, agree to the settlement under the strict condition that no admission of liability is required—allowing them to profit from war production while denying responsibility for the human consequences.

The settlement proves grossly inadequate for the scale of harm. The Agent Orange Settlement Fund distributes a total of $197 million in cash payments over its lifetime, averaging approximately $3,800 per case among roughly 52,000 American veterans and their families. Those rated unequivocally medically ill from Agent Orange exposure receive up to $12,800 paid out over 10 years. For families of veterans who already died from Agent Orange-related illnesses, compensation is limited to just $3,400. The fund closes in 1997, leaving many veterans and their families without adequate compensation for devastating health problems.

Many veterans who are victims of Agent Orange exposure express outrage that the case settled instead of going to court, feeling betrayed by the lawyers. “Fairness Hearings” held in five major American cities allow veterans and their families to condemn the settlement and demand the case be heard before a jury. No causal relationship is ever legally established between health effects in Vietnam veterans and Agent Orange exposure because the out-of-court settlement prevents full judicial examination of evidence. A few months after the settlement, the Justice Department refutes the companies’ claim that they simply followed government orders, pinning blame on the manufacturers’ “profit, not compulsion or patriotism”—yet this acknowledgment comes too late to affect the settlement terms or hold corporations accountable.