Children of Agent Orange

 

“The Girl in the Picture”

We were strolling leisurely through the Backpackers District in Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon). I was with two of my friends - Krishnan who was the country manager of a multinational pharmaceutical company in Vietnam and Vinod who was doing an UN funded research on the Champa tribes of Vietnam.

It was my first weekend in Saigon and our mission was to locate an ideal “watering hole” for spending the rest of the evening “spiritually”. The place was full of pubs. Finding the right one was a challenging assignment. Finally we had settled for a small pub near the famous “Bodhi Tree” restaurant, with the uncanny knack of finding the wrong one always.

While trying to get out of the place after having a quick drink, my friend Vinod had mentioned casually about the opportunity he had to meet the brother of “the girl in the picture” one week back. It was exciting news.

Hearing this, the first thing that came to my mind was the photograph of a naked girl screaming and running to get away from napalm bombing. The picture had become the most powerful anti-war icon of the modern journalism. No other image has ever stirred the conscience of the humanity like this photograph did. This photograph, taken by Nick Ut of Associated Press on June 8, 1972, had won him the Pulitzer Prize for journalism. 

                                          (Courtesy Wikipedia)

The girl in the photograph was Kim Phuc, who had torn off her burning clothes to escape from the American napalm bomb attack, was crying and running frightened. After taking the photograph, Nick Ut had taken her and other children to the nearby hospital. Doctors gave up saying that her burns were severe and the chance of survival was remote. But after 17 surgeries and fifteen months of hospitalization, Kim, also known as “the girl in the picture” survived.

Now she lives in Ontario, Canada with her two children. Kim Phuc is currently the UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the Culture of Peace. In an interview, recently, Kim Phuc told that the photograph should be exposed to future generations. "Let the world see how horrible wars can be"

Agent Orange

During my stay in Vietnam, I saw a number of people including children with various kinds of physical deformities. Some of them were with limbs twisted and malformed and others seen with short stumps in place of arms or legs. I was deeply disturbed by the sight of those people. I asked Krishnan about this. He told me “They are the “Children of Agent Orange””.

I was perplexed. He went on to tell me about “Agent Orange”. It was a deadly cocktail of Dioxin and poisonous herbicides. Dioxin was one of the most toxic chemicals ever known. US forces sprayed more than 75 million liters of this chemical over Southern Vietnam during the war. The aim was to defoliate the forest areas to prevent communist fighters from getting jungle cover. Agent Orange was sprayed on over 20000 villages.

Later in a scientific study it was found out that it could cause birth defects. Agent Orange was lethal to those who had come into contact and had caused deadly diseases like Cancer. It was not only harmful to the unborn children in their mothers’ womb, but also to the generations to come. Every family in those 20,000 villages had a heart-wrenching experience to tell. Even the third generation children were suffering from many gruesome health problems and physical deformities. I was really shaken to hear this information.

On the evening of our spiritual quest, I saw a cute little boy selling pirated best-seller books on the pavement. I thought I would buy a book on Vietnam War. I pointed to a book and asked him to give it. He smiled at me happily and gave the book to me.

I felt a chill spreading through my spine. I noticed that in place of palms he had only two-fingered claws.

The war is not yet over.