An estimated three million Vietnamese and 58,000 Americans died during the 19-year war. What few people know, even in Vietnam, is that the American War is still taking its toll in both countries. After the war, another three hundred thousand Americans died from exposure to tactical defoliants such as Agent Orange, which the U.S. military used to gain better visibility of the enemy. About nine thousand veterans committed suicide.
Nguyen Van Thien (48) plays chess while holding chopsticks between his teeth. This agent orange victim cannot move his entire body. “Sometimes I get angry and think: why did God give me this body?” he said.
800 km north of Saigon, near the coastline of Da Nang, a number of children with Agent Orange disease play with American war veterans. They learn to write, sing, and eat lunch together at a rehabilitation center house: @childrenshopeinaction.
800 km north of Saigon, near the coastline of Da Nang, a number of children with Agent Orange disease play with American war veterans. They learn to write, sing, and eat lunch together at a rehabilitation center house: @childrenshopeinaction.
Text written by Noël van Bemmel for de Volkskrant.
