Photojournalist Paul S. Amundsen

Children of Agent Orange

The little girl lies on the floor and looks up at the newcomer to the ward. Truong Minh Ngoc Diep is five years old and has no legs. One-year-old Tran Binh Minh has webbed fingers.

Text and photo: Paul S. Amundsen

Both have been named Minh by staff because their parents don’t want to or can't take care of them. The children are staying indefinitely in Peace Village 2 at the Tu Du hospital in Ho Chi Minh City. They are not alone. Most children in this department are called Minh.

Most children here are third-generation victims of a toxic herbicide the US military sprayed over Vietnam 35 years ago. The Americans decided to remove the foliage from the jungle so that they could see the enemy more easily while the battle raged during the Vietnam War. The solution used was Agent Orange, a herbicide containing dioxins which came in large, orange barrels. From 1964 to 1971, the US military sprayed the poison over the country. Agent Orange appeared to be a major success. The leaves fell off the trees. However, the dioxins remained behind.

CHILDREN WITHOUT LEGS, or arms. Children with huge, deformed heads, split palates, protruding eyes, scales and brain damage In the Peace Village, the whole spectrum of deformation and illness is in evidence.

They cheer and play just like other children even if most are left to themselves and their future is uncertain. Some parents come to visit and others don't.

The hospital's birth statistics show that just under one per cent of all newborn babies at the enormous hospital are born with deformities, which is 350 babies a year. The numbers were even higher in the 70s and 80s.

All of the defects cannot be attributed to Agent Orange, but from the 60s up to now the disproportionate numbers of children with birth defects has been so striking that few researchers are able to ignore the clear connection between Agent Orange and foetal abnormalities.

“The number of abnormalities is gradually decreasing, but victims of Agent Orange will continue to be born in the years to come, says the director of the Peace Village, Nguyen Thi Phuong Tan.

THE QUESTION OF COMPENSATION has been controversial for many years . So far, no victims in Vietnam have received any compensation for injuries caused by the spreading of chemicals during the Vietnam war.

In 1984, the manufacturers of the chemicals paid out 180 million dollars in a settlement to US war veterans. Now the Vietnamese hope to achieve proper legal redress. At the moment, the prospects are not looking good.

The US is claiming sovereign immunity and cannot be sued. The legal question of compensation must instead be directed to the producers of the chemicals.

Last year a lawsuit, raised jointly by 100 Vietnamese, was thrown out by a US federal district court. The judge ruled that it wasn't a crime for chemical producers to sell the substance to the US military. Judge Jack Weinstein also pinpointed a lack of documented evidence linking Agent Orange and the many illnesses the plaintiffs referred to.

The court's decision was appealed, but the appeal has yet to be decided upon.

RUMOURS ABOUT THE LAWSUIT have reached the Vietnamese village. Far away from the hospital in Ho Chi Minh city, in a little house in Cam Lo, Hoang Thi Ly is washing the wounds on her daughter's legs. Hoang Thi Hien cries in pain when the cloth presses too hard on the boils on the skin.

Ly hadn't heard of Agent Orange on the day she was walking along the road in Quang Tri-province in central Vietnam and heard the drone of planes in the distance. It was 1968 and Ly was pregnant.

“Suddenly it was as if rain was falling from the sky. But it wasn't rain. My skin got wet and I fell over,” she explains. “I didn't know what it was, but I could tell that it was something very poisonous. I was unconscious for several hours and afterwards I had pains all over my body, she says. Hien was born a few months later.

In 1973, doctors started to talk about a possible connection between her daughter's abnormalities and the chemicals her mother was exposed to. Today Ly is convinced that the herbicides are the cause of Hien’s brain-damage and the fact that her skin is so damaged that she can hardly sleep lying down. She generally sits on the floor, resting with knees bent so that she doesn't have to lie on the boils.

Hoang Thi Ly thinks that the US is morally responsible for what has happened to their family. She knows about the lawsuit against the manufacturers of the chemicals.

”Nothing can compensate for what the US has done to us and everybody else who has been affected. It shouldn’t be necessary to sue them to get them to understand that they are responsible for the suffering they have caused us.

THESE FAMILIES ARE EVERYWHERE and their stories are all tragic. In Quang Tri province, traces of the Vietnam war are at their most visible. This area has been most exposed to Agent Orange. The clean-up is still continuing, very slowly, because there is not enough money.

Tran Thi Linh is lying motionless on a bed in the shade. The thermometer says 36 degrees C. The 17 year old can not talk or eat unassisted.

The father feeds her, strokes her forehead. He does it every day. He has no choice.

Bags of rice are stacked along the wall. The family sells them for other farmers in the area. This is their living. Luckily, it is possible to combine it with looking after the daughter. There is no hope of getting other work. Once a month the family receives NOK 25 in support, owing to their daughter’s condition.

In 1994, both Tran Dinh Phi and the daughter were tested for traces of dioxins. The doctors established that their condition could be traced to Agent Orange.

“The doctors said that my daughter will probably not live longer than 35 years. Last year our second child died. Our only comfort is our oldest daughter, who is completely well,” says Phi. He thinks the dioxins got into his body when he was serving as a soldier in contaminated areas after the war.

He has also heard about the lawsuit against the manufacturers of the chemicals. He believes they should be held responsible. But he doubts that the Vietnamese will be listened to.

He fixes the old fan and directs it towards his daughter's face and thinks carefully before he speaks.

“Even if the appeal is dismissed, it is important for the world to pressurise the US into taking more responsibility for their actions. They have the fate of many people on their consciences.”

AGENT ORANGE FACTS

Barrels of poison: From 1964 to 1971, the US military sprayed 40 million litres of herbicide over Vietnam. The poison was a mixture of 2.4-D and 2.4.5-T, developed in the1940s to control foliage In Vietnam, the chemical was called Agent Orange after the orange-coloured barrels in which it was stored.

Warfare: The spray was intended to remove foliage in the jungle, so that the US military could more easily see the enemy in hiding.

In the food chain: The chemicals contained the dioxin TCDD and ended up in the food chain. It takes 30 years for the amount of dioxins to be reduced by half. The dioxins are carcinogenic and can cause birth defects.

Large numbers of victims: Nobody knows how many people have been affected by Agent Orange. According to a 2003-report from ØThe National Academy of Sciences in the US, 3,184 villages were directly exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. Between 2.1 and 4.8 million people are thought to have been in the areas which were sprayed.

No compensation: So far, no Vietnamese people have been compensated for the damage caused by Agent Orange. Last year a lawsuit was thrown out by a US Federal District Court. The decision has been appealed.

Received compensation: US war veterans in 1984 received compensation worth 180 million dollars from the producers of the chemicals. Soldiers from Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South Korea have also received compensation.