40 years on, VN still battles Agent Orange legacy
Play
DANANG (Reuters) - Tan Tri doesn't know a thing about Agent Orange. But doctors say he lives with its effects every day, when he crawls off his wooden bed and waits for someone to feed him. He is 25.
His mother Vo Thi Nham was exposed to Agent Orange when US forces showered the chemical across swathes of Vietnam half a century ago to the destroy jungle cover of its wartime enemy.
Nham believes it's the reason her son was born physically and mentally disabled.
"Other people around here were affected by Agent Orange, too, but it was really bad for us," Nham said at her home in Danang, central Vietnam. "At least they can walk - he can't."
Tri, slumped on the concrete floor at her feet, chimed in.
"I can walk with my arms!", he said, correcting her.
The Vietnam War ended 40 years ago this week and its memory is fading among its young population.
But Agent Orange is the enduring legacy it cannot forget, with children of a second post-war generation still being born with deformities which their doctors believe are linked to the defoliant.
Some three million Vietnamese have suffered from fatal diseases, disabilities and illness after coming into contact with Agent Orange, according to the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin (VAVA).
Today deformities are visible everywhere. In the streets, beggars carry children with swollen heads or unnaturally bent limbs. Bodies are twisted, some are born without eyes.
Le Dang Ngoc Hung, 15, lies taciturn on a bamboo mat most of the day, his listless eyes and mouth drooping. Hung cannot walk and has the delicate skin of a newborn because he rarely ventures outside.
"It was sad," his mother, Le Thi Thao, said recalling when she discovered his disability. "But he is my son, so of course, I have to take care of him."
The United States is fast becoming an important ally for Vietnam, but Agent Orange remains a source of friction.
Washington allocated $43 million in 2012 to clean land contaminated by dioxin from the estimated 20 million gallons of Agent Orange sprayed in Vietnam from 1962-1971, but many Vietnamese say that's not enough.
Some American veterans are sympathetic, like Chuck Palazzo, who has devoted years of his life to working with Vietnamese to fight the stubborn vestiges of Agent Orange.
But he's unsure if they're winning the battle.
"Does it get better or does it get worse?" he said. "It's a grind. And you have to keep at it. We just have no idea how long this is going to last."
