Connie Levett; 26/8/06; www.theage.com.au
Nguyen Thi Kim Vang had never seen a child with a birth deformity before the American War. Thirty years later she lives with a constant screaming reminder. Of her children, three died in the first few months, two are normal and the sixth still cannot recognise her despite the fact Mrs Vang has nursed, changed her nappies and fed her every day for 25 years. Her husband spent years in the jungle fighting for the Vietcong and was exposed to defoliants sprayed by US forces.
Her daughter, Duong Thi Thu Huong, now 25, was born apparently normal but a week later developed marks on her skin. Today she is a twisted shell, with the body weight of a 10-year-old, twitching in her dilapidated wheelchair in the simple family home in Vung Tau, a small coastal town two hours south of Ho Chi Minh City.
Above her, in pride of place, is a large portrait of the father of the revolution, Ho Chi Minh. “She doesn’t know anything,” said her mother, “but I have not had one full night’s sleep since she was born, she screams every night.”
In Vietnam, it’s impossible to ignore Agent Orange; its casualties are everywhere. An estimated four million Vietnamese were exposed to Agent Orange, a chemical mixture of two synthetic herbicides, 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T, which was used to strip foliage from the jungle, depriving the Vietcong guerillas of shelter and food.
It contains dioxin, which does not dissolve in water, is thought to have contaminated the water supply and entered the food chain through the soil. Between 1961 and 1971 the US sprayed 80 million litres of herbicides over southern Vietnam.
In the US, the government has found ways to look after its own casualties without admitting guilt, but the Vietnamese get very little airplay and have received no compensation.
The Vietnamese Government wants to change that. In March last year it lost a lawsuit against 37 chemical companies that provided the US government with Agent Orange. The US Department of Justice was not party to the suit, but filed a brief in support of the chemical companies. The judge ruled the allegations that the chemical caused birth defects and illness had not been proved.
Undaunted by the loss, the Vietnamese Government has launched an appeal, expected to go before the US Court of Appeal in November, promising new research on genetic deformity and 26 new plaintiffs to add to the original three.
The clinching evidence in the appeal will be new research from the Military Medical Institute on 50,000 people, said Professor Nguyen Trong Nhan, deputy chairman of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin.
He told the state-owned Family and Society newspaper “it shows people who live in AO/dioxin-affected areas will have up to 2.95 per cent and 2.69 per cent of their children and grandchildren respectively deformed. The rates in other areas are 0.74 to 0.82 per cent.”
Despite Vietnamese optimism, one US supporter of the appeal thinks it unlikely the court will find in their favour. Kenneth Herman, an academic and former veteran who runs a program in Da Nang for children disabled by Agent Orange, said: “The problem with Agent Orange is severe and ongoing. The research shows mutations through several generations. The reality is that science doesn’t know how long it will go on.
“It gets back to defence contracts: can they be held liable for defence materials sold to the government for war,” he said.
In Vung Tau, the provincial chapter of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/dioxin says it has 3390 registered cases ranging from severe to mild, affecting first generation to third.
The association’s Dr Nguyen Thi Tan Thao took The Age to visit three cases in Vung Tau city: a man who developed paralysis in his 60s and can now only blink his eyes, Duong Thi Thu Huong, and a 22-year-old, who lies all day on a bed because of swollen joints, unable to walk, but who can talk, read and write. Her dream is to go to school. “If you come to the countryside I can show you much worse,” he said.
In the years since the war, veterans from the US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have obtained compensation in out-of-court settlements. Yet nothing has been given to the people most exposed and whose lives continue to be affected by the toxin.
The US Veterans Administration has just approved disability payments for the US Navy’s “brown water” veterans — those who worked on the rivers, through areas that had been sprayed, Mr Herman said. “They will pay for disorders suffered by them or their children — non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, type 2 diabetes, children born with spina bifida or who develop leukaemia.
“So while we are able to do that for our own veterans, they are not willing to do it for the Vietnamese people who have lived in that for 30 or 40 years,” he said.