![]() "This is due to the US sprayings," said Dr Hong Tien Dong, village doctor who has lived in the area all his life. Many are highly susceptible to cancers and disease.Īnd Vietnamese doctors are convinced Agent Orange is to blame.Īgent Orange was intended to defoliate the jungle Many were not born when the US sprayed the area - but there is strong evidence the chemicals are still having an effect.Ī disproportionately large number of children in the areas affected are born with defects, both mental and physical. The second one is having headaches like me."įood and supplies are still delivered to victims of Agent Orange. ![]() My first child has just died - he had physical deformities. "When I realise I have been contaminated with poisonous chemicals, and the US government hasn't done anything to help, I feel very sad, and it makes me cry," he added. "If the US and Vietnamese governments could care for people like me, that would be comforting," she added.Īnother man said his legs have "wasted away" as a result of Agent Orange. One woman said the herbicide had caused a skin disease which gave her "great suffering". A number of people in these areas believe they are victims of the chemical. Spraying stopped in 1971, after more than 6,000 missions and growing public disquiet.īut the ground in many areas of Vietnam remains contaminated by Agent Orange. Anyone eating or drinking in contaminated areas then receives an even higher dose. Dioxins accumulate in the body to cause cancers. It was also used - mostly in secret - over parts of neighbouring Cambodia.Īndrew Wells-Dang, Fund for Reconciliation and Developmentīut Agent Orange in particular was laced with dioxins - extremely toxic to humans. There were many Agents used, including Pink, Green and White, but Agent Orange was used the most - 45m litres sprayed over a 10th of Vietnam. The US sprayed 80m litres of poisonous chemicals during Operation Ranchhand. ![]() An appeal has been lodged against this decision. "We help the people who are victims of the Agent Orange and the dioxins, but the capacity of our government is very limited."Ĭampaigners such as Mr Nguyen believe they have been left with little choice but to resort to legal action, and in 2004 took the chemical companies that produced Agent Orange to court in the US.īut last month an American Federal District Judge dismissed the case on the grounds that use of the defoliant did not violate international law at the time. "They are the poorest and the most vulnerable people - and that is why Vietnam is a very poor country," he said. He told BBC World Service's One Planet programme that Vietnam's poverty was a direct result of the use of Agent Orange. Nguyen Trong Nhan, from the Vietnam Association Of Victims Of Agent Orange and a former president of Vietnamese Red Cross, believes the use of Agent Orange was a "war crime". The Vietnamese believe that the powerful weed killer - the use of which was intended to destroy crops and jungle providing cover for the Vietcong - is responsible for massively high instances of genetic defects in areas that were sprayed. Thirty years after hostilities ended between the US and Vietnam, relations remain strained by one of America's most notorious actions, the use of the chemical Agent Orange. Vietnam doctors believe the effects of Agent Orange are ongoing
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