Impact of Agent Orange during Vietnam War still haunts Children

Children with disabilities play in the courtyard of Vietnam Friendship Village outside Hanoi. They are some of the 100 children and 40 adults who live in the center which helps victims of Agent Orange, a deadly herbicide used extensively by U.S. troops during the Vietnam War.

Children with disabilities, victims of herbicides sprayed by US forces

Children with disabilities, victims of herbicides sprayed by US forces

As the 40th anniversary of the end of the war approaches, a group of U.S. veterans and anti-war activists are visiting the facility to learn about the war’s lingering affects.

Suel Jones served as a U.S. Marine during the war.

“I love being on this trip and sharing with my veteran friends. And not all these people fought in the war- many of these people fought against the war in the United States. They were anti-war people. So you have a, I was a marine, now we have marines and anti-war people working together to help these children. And that’s what life is all about, giving back”, he said.

According to the Vietnamese government, the U.S. army sprayed about 75 million litres ( 20 million gallons) of dioxin herbicides over the Vietnamese forests and jungles from 1962 to 1971.

They were successful in destroying large forest areas and exposed four million Vietnamese — soldiers and civilians as well as their children and grandchildren — to the toxic chemical.

Ventuno