George Claxton: The Agent Orange Fighter

BY DALE SPRUSANSKY

When he began continuously defecating blood upon returning from his first tour of duty in Vietnam in 1967, George Claxton knew something was very wrong. “I don’t know what the hell it is, but it must be from Vietnam,” he recalls his doctor telling him. In the years that followed, Claxton inexplicably began to suffer neurological damage, skin rashes, and intestinal problems. It would take him twelve years to learn that Agent Orange, the chemical he was exposed to in 1967 while fighting near the Cambodian border, was the source of his physical ailments.

From the moment he learned of the toxic nature of AO in 1979, Claxton has dedicated his life to exposing its carcinogenic nature and fighting for the rights of his fellow veterans exposed to the chemical. “I headed straight for the libraries [in pursuit of information],” he said. It was in the libraries that Claxton began to compile data linking AO to debilitating conditions. He has not stopped since.

At his home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, a determined Claxton spends his days scanning scientific databases for the newest studies on AO and other dioxins. He devotes all eighteen waking hours of his day to this task. Claxton boasts that he currently has more than ten thousand studies conducted by scientists throughout the world compiled in his ever-growing database. He has collected so much data that his office can no longer retain it all. “I’m cramped up to the gills in here,” he said. This hardly troubles Claxton; he just looks for another room.

Claxton’s “library of scientific evidence” is by no means for his purposes only. Claxton, who served as chair of VVA’s Agent Orange/Dioxin Committee for over a decade and is the recipient of the VVA Commendation Medal, proudly shares his database with veterans in need of scientific evidence to support their VA claims or lawsuits. He said that “quite a bit” of people reach out to him each year seeking access to this treasure trove of information.

In 1979, Claxton put his new collection of scientific studies to immediate use when he became the second person in the country to join an AO-related class action lawsuit against the federal government and the chemical companies. The lawsuit was settled in 1985, and a $180 million fund was created by the chemical companies to compensate veterans afflicted with ailments resulting from exposure to AO. The settlement hardly satisfied Claxton. “In my opinion the veterans got screwed,” he said.

It is this enduring belief that veterans and the larger public are getting shafted by the government and chemical companies that motivates George Claxton to continue his work. “It’s very easy for a big corporation to have political influence,” he says. “[Chemical] industry studies are a joke….There are a lot of suspicious things going on.”

When not at home reviewing journals, Claxton, who founded the Michigan Agent Orange Commission, travels the nation to present and discuss the information he has uncovered to an array of audiences. He’s uplifted by the reception he gets. “People listen. They get excited,” he said of the crowds. Claxton did, however, acknowledge that his passion for the topic of Agent Orange and dioxins can get the better of him. “I can go on forever at meetings,” he concedes.

Less uplifting for Claxton are the trips he takes to Vietnam. Since the end of the war, Claxton has returned to Vietnam on five occasions. Each time, he is deeply saddened and troubled by the many deformed babies born in the provinces surrounding Saigon, where AO was sprayed in high doses. Seeing the effects that dioxin has had on the Vietnamese is “enough to keep you going,” Claxton said. It’s also enough to convince him that AO is every bit as toxic as his scientific data suggests.

While he is thoroughly convinced that his database unequivocally demonstrates the positive correlation between exposure to AO and a wide array of cancers and ailments, Claxton is quick to point out that he is by no means a scientist. “I’m not interpreting the studies. I put them out there for people to read,” he said. “I may not be a scientist, but I’ve got two eyes. I can read. I’m going after the evidence.”

His life consumed by the topic of Agent Orange for over thirty years now, George Claxton shows no signs of easing his self-imposed hefty workload. “I’m out to prove the truth. I’ll never stop.”