Fred Wilcox - Scorched Earth

I joined the Vietnamese People’s Army and fought at the Tay Nguyen Battlefield for national independence.

I have been infected with Agent Orange used by the US Army in Vietnam. In consequence of this my wife has had three monsters in three pregnancies followed by three disabled children:

—Le Thi Thoa: Congenitally amputated.

—Le Quang Chien: disabled and deformed

—Le Quang Chuong: disabled left leg (Cannot move.)

The photos of our three children are attached to this letter.

For me, I have been infected directly with Agent Orange: poor eyesight, losing most of my lower jaw’s teeth, two loose teeth, often getting ill, gastrectomy of three-fourths of my stomach, gangrene of forty cm of my intestine, rheumatic limbs, neurasthenia.

My wife is in panic when seeing such a husband and children. Therefore, she has a mental disease. Sometimes, she does not know what she is doing. My family has too many difficulties in both material and spiritual life. My family members have suffered from the effects of the Agent Orange. Therefore, we have to speak up in order that the world people know the Agent Orange victims’ losses.

Hoang Trinh Commune,

Hoang Hoa District, Thanh Hoa Province

Dear Professor Kenneth Herrmann,

My name is Tran Thi Lanh. I was born and raised in Trieu Phong, Quang Tri. This area was mercilessly destroyed by chemical warfare during the American war.

My daughter is two years old but she cannot speak or sit up. Her head is getting bigger while her muscles are getting smaller. Our life is very difficult. We have to live off of my parents and my neighbors.

I know that you are collecting letters from across Vietnam. I hope that my daughter will be another proof to illustrate the disastrous effects of the AO the American soldiers used during the war.

Dear Professor Herrmann,

My name is Phan Phuoc Trung and I am fifty-five years old.

My wife’s name is To Thi Dieu and she is fifty years old.

I was very touched to read the appeal that you made in the newspaper. The article came to me like an angel’s arrival to save the lives of millions of AO victims in my country.

We, the AO victims in Vietnam, really appreciate your concern for us. The war has been over for almost thirty years. The Americans have begun to forget about us while millions of the Vietnamese people are still living with its disastrous effects. It is a tragedy. There are millions of Vietnamese families who are living with persistent pain caused by the American troops during the war. There are many families, Dear Mr., that are affected into the third generation. We still have no idea when AO will stop affecting the health and safety of my innocent people. It may affect the fourth and fifth generations. The list may be longer.

Dioxin still exists in the soil we cultivate, the water we drink, and the food we eat. This means that it sill exists within each Vietnamese citizen.

The US government has admitted the effect of AO on the American troops who served in the Vietnam War. The veterans have been compensated. It is unjust with the AO victims.

All of the Vietnamese AO victims have been living in silence. They are lonely, coping with their pains and losses. The company producing this deadly agent must be responsible for this. It is time for us to share with you our pains.

Yes, I am going to share with you the story of my family. My wife and I were born and raised in Hue. We married and had five healthy and good-looking children before we moved to Ninh Son, Ninh Thuan Province in 1994. By the end of 1995, our daughter named Phan Thi My Lien was born. We were miserable to know that Lien had a cleft lip and that her head was flat. She is nine years old now, but she cannot walk, cannot speak, and cannot recognize anything. She weighs ten kilos (22 pounds). We were very nervous and were told that the place where we were living was heavily sprayed with AO during the American War. We immediately sold our house and moved to a different place. A couple of years ago, I came back to this place to visit my neighbors. I discovered that the family who had bought my house also gave birth to a disabled child. Their son is mentally retarded. I also learned that the midwife who helped with Lien’s arrival also had two disabled children. Both of them had died. In addition to this, there are many disabled children in this area.

I just shared with you the story about my family. This is just one of millions of stories about AO victims in Vietnam. Please communicate to any people you know about how deadly this agent is.

Dear Professor Kenneth Herrmann,

I would like to tell you the story about my family. My father came from a poor family. He joined the Liberation Army in November 1969 and became a tank driver. He traveled across Southern Vietnam. He came back home in September 1975, rejoined the army in September 1987, and came back home shortly after that. He then married my mother. A year after my parents were married, my sister, Nguyen Thi Xuan, was born. When she was five days old, she began to have seizures. My parents sent her to many hospitals in the area but it did not help. She was paralyzed. My mother had to stop working to provide care to my sister.

Two years later I was born. The same symptoms occurred: half of my body was paralyzed. Life became more difficult.

When my father was forty-six years old, he was diagnosed with cancer and passed away shortly after that. All the family’s belongings were sold for his medication and treatment.

My mother became a single mother with two disabled children when she was thirty-eight years old. It has been twenty-three years. My mother has heart disease but she has to work very hard for us.

I am luckier than my sister is. I am a tailor. Nevertheless, I still find it hard to integrate into the community. People seem to ignore me and make fun of my disability.

I have attached a picture of my sister. I wish you good health.

Dear Professor Kenneth Herrmann,

The war has been over for almost thirty years. However, the disastrous effects are still there in every corner of Vietnam. It is heartbreaking to think about the large amounts of dioxin that was sprayed by American troops from 1964 to 1975.

I was born during the time American troops were spraying dioxin. My name is Nguyen Thi Hong and I was born in 1955. I currently live in Trung Nam hamlet, Que Trung commune, Que Son district, Quang Nam Province.

I was a common resident who was living in the area where American troops sprayed dioxin. At that time the weather became increasingly hot and famine was widespread. However, both the food and water were badly contaminated. Regardless of the spraying, we drank the water without paying any attention to its pungent smell. We also ignored side effects such as headaches and dizziness. I didn’t think about the long-term effects.

I gave birth to my only child in 1995. Her name is Nguyen Thi Thuy Van. Unfortunately, she suffered from malnourishment. She did not recognize any movements until she was two years old. In addition to her mental state, she also has an inborn heart defect; this serious disease is always life-threatening.

Since this time our economic condition has dramatically gotten worse. I have been spiritually devastated knowing that my only child is in danger. As a widow, I don’t know what to do to help my daughter. It is most miserable to know that the poisonous water I drank when I was young is the cause of her disease. The poison has passed from my genes to hers.