KEY POINTS:
What a missed opportunity for National Party leader John Key that he didn't pop across the fence from his Parnell mansion on Sunday and join his Bastion Pt neighbours in the love-in commemorating the 30th anniversary of their forced eviction by one of his predecessors, Rob Muldoon.
Prime Minister Helen Clark managed to be there, as did Police Commissioner Howard Broad, and two former Governors-General, Dame Cath Tizard and Sir Paul Reeves.
It was like a restorative justice meeting where the perpetrator - or their descendants - failed to show. Mr Key's spokesman says the event clashed with National's Auckland regional conference.
A more experienced campaigner would have seen the merits in slipping away from the faithful for an hour to indulge in a hongi or two with old foes, and to express a regret or two for past wrongs.
Today in Parliament, it's reconciliation day number two for the week. And another occasion a National leader might prefer to forget. Helen Clark, on behalf of the Crown, will apologise to Vietnam war veterans for not treating them "fairly" on their return to New Zealand 40-odd years ago.
This is the symbolic part of a reconciliation agreement reached in 2006 which included a $30 million fund for veterans and their families suffering ill-effects from our US ally's reckless use of Agent Orange herbicide during the war.
Unfortunately, Helen Clark is too much the centrist to milk this occasion for all it's worth. If I was in her position I'd be tempted to make the inheritors of Sir Keith Holyoake's legacy squirm by also offering heartfelt thanks from the Crown to the tens of thousands of New Zealanders who took to the streets to oppose the war and force the Government to bring the troops home early.
I might also apologise, on behalf of the Crown, for calling those protesters traitors and communists and for setting the police on them. I might also invite the National leader, in the spirit of reconciliation, to agree. Then we'd all sing from the Peter, Paul and Mary song book and light up a joint. Yeah, man.
Getting back to reality, surely the people we should be apologising to are the people of Vietnam. Last September during his visit to this country, Vietnam President Nguyen Minh Triet proposed that some of our veterans travel to his country to meet some of the old enemy troops. How forgiving is that?
The vets shouldn't just be visiting. They should be expanding their personal campaign for compensation for the effect of Agent Orange poisoning on them and their families, to include compensation for the main targets of the spraying, the people of Vietnam.
From 1961 to 1971, the US doused parts of Vietnam with 70 to 80 million litres of deadly herbicides, about half of that Agent Orange. In 1984, the big seven companies agreed to a $229 million settlement with US vets claiming health problems.
Nothing went to provide support for the primary victims, the villagers of Vietnam and their deformed, suffering descendants.
This month, American Samoa congressman Eni Faleomavaega, a returned Vietnam vet, chaired a US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs subcommittee probe into "Our forgotten responsibility: What can we do to help victims of Agent Orange?"
Vietnamese doctors were invited to give evidence. The committee was told that joint Japanese-Vietnamese epidemiological studies showed the percentage and illness frequency of Vietnamese Agent Orange victims was higher than affected war veterans "in the US, New Zealand and Republic of Korea".
Returned veteran Mr Faleomavaega said the US had "a high moral duty" to help repair the damage in Vietnam. "US and Vietnamese victims have not been adequately compensated and Vietnam has not been cleaned up."
He called on the chemical companies "to do right by the victims ... just as tobacco manufacturers have begun to settle lawsuits brought on as a result of their false claims".
He compared the $2.54 million of US aid to Vietnam to help clean up the chemical residue, with the US$45.4 billion ($57.4 billion) for Iraq reconstruction.
In response, Scot Marciel, Deputy Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, continued to deny US legal liability for "the perceived negative health effects of exposure to Agent Orange" in Vietnam. That said, he pointed to small health and remediation programmes the US had planned for the country and in discussing other charitable aid providers said "several other new donors, including the Governments of Greece and New Zealand and the Atlantic Philanthropies, are considering related assistance".
If, as the Assistant Secretary says, the New Zealand Government is considering further support for Vietnam victims, that's good news. But our vets, meeting in Wellington this week, and the Government should join Congressman Faleomavaega to pressure the US Government and the chemical-makers. If apologies and compensation are due to anyone, our focus should surely be on those who were deliberately targeted.
