The bastard cursed US Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon and their fellow croonies and soldier murderers who are now in piles of shit for eternity.
https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/worl...er&cvid=89522b2f75074a20d23f29b9939b188c&ei=7
DA NANG, Vietnam (AP) — The
Vietnam War ended on April 30, 1975, when the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to Communist forces. But millions of people still face daily battles with its chemical legacy.
Nguyen Thanh Hai, 34, is one of millions with disabilities linked to Agent Orange. Born with severe developmental challenges, it's a struggle for him to complete tasks others take for granted: buttoning the blue shirt he wears to a special school in Da Nang, practicing the alphabet, drawing shapes or forming simple sentences.
Hai grew up in Da Nang, the site of a U.S. air base where departing troops left behind huge amounts of Agent Orange that have lingered for decades, leeching into food and water supplies in areas like Hai's village and affecting generations of residents.
FILE- Armored personnel carriers with tank support move through dense underbrush with a payload of South Vietnamese infantrymen and U.S. cavalrymen during patrol through jungle 40 miles northeast of Saigon on June 5, 1969. (AP Photo/Rick Merron, File)© The Associated Press
Across Vietnam, U.S. forces sprayed sprayed 72 million liters (19 million gallons) of defoliants during the war to strip the enemy's cover. More than half was Agent Orange, a blend of herbicides.
Agent Orange was laced with dioxin, a type of chemical linked to cancer, birth defects and lasting environmental damage. Today, 3 million people, including many children, still suffer serious health issues associated with exposure to it.
Vietnam has spent decades cleaning up the toxic legacy of the war, in part funded by belated U.S. assistance, but the work is far from complete.
Now, millions in Vietnam are worried that the U.S. may abandon Agent Orange cleanup as President Donald Trump slashes foreign aid.
FILE- Infantryman points out a suspicious shadow in a tree to his machine gunner as they move on patrol near the Cambodian Border west of Pleiku in Vietnam on Nov. 26, 1966. Troops of the 25th Infantry Division (1st Battn. 14th Inf.) inches through the thick jungle from their base camp after being held up three days by snipers. AP Photo/Horst Faas, File)© The Associated Press
Decades of contamination
When the war ended, the U.S. turned its back on Vietnam, eager to turn the page on a painful chapter in its history.
But Vietnam was left with dozens of dioxin hotspots spread across 58 of its 63 provinces.
Vietnam says the health impacts last generations, threatening the children, grandchildren, and even great-grandchildren of people exposed to the chemicals with health complications ranging from cancer to birth defects that affects the spine and nervous system.
FILE- A yellow flag marks a field contaminated with dioxin near Danang airport, during a ceremony marking the start of a project to clean up dioxin left over from the Vietnam War, at a former U.S. military base in Danang, Vietnam Thursday Aug. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Maika Elan, File)© The Associated Press
But the science about the human health impact — both to those exposed to Agent Orange and the generations that follow — remains unsettled. This is partly because when the two countries finally started working together in 2006, they focused on finding dioxin in the environment and clearing it instead of studying the still-contentious topic of its impact on human health, said Charles Bailey, co-author of the book “From Enemies to Partners: Vietnam, the U.S. and Agent Orange.”
FILE- Maps of the area contaminated with dioxin around Danang airport are displayed during a ceremony marking the start of a project to clean up dioxin left over from the Vietnam War, at a former U.S. military base in Danang, Vietnam Thursday Aug. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/Maika Elan, File)© The Associated Press
“The science of causality is still incomplete,” said Bailey.
Vietnam identifies Agent Orange victims by checking family history, where they lived, and a list of health problems linked to the poison. And Hai's disabilities were very likely linked to the spraying of the defoliant, added Bailey.
The 34-year-old dreams of becoming a soldier like his grandfather, was unable to leave home for years, waiting alone while his family went out to work. It was only five years ago that he began attending a special school. “I am happy here because I have many friends,” he said. Other students at the school hope to become tailors or makers of incense sticks.
The contamination also denuded Vietnam’s natural defenses. Nearly half of its mangrove trees, which shield shores from strong storms, were destroyed. Much of its tropical forest was irrevocably damaged, while the herbicide also leached the soil of nutrients in some of Vietnam’s most climate-vulnerable areas.
FILE -A woman walks next to a highly contaminated pond around the grounds of the Danang airbase in Danang, Vietnam, May 21, 2007. (AP Photo/David Guttenfelder, File)© The Associated Press
A massive cleanup begins
In the decades after the war ended, the recovering country fenced off heavily contaminated sites like Da Nang airport and began providing support to impacted families.
But the U.S. largely ignored growing evidence of health impacts — including on its own veterans — until the mid-2000s, when it and began funding cleanup in Vietnam. In 1991, the U.S. recognized that certain diseases could be related to exposure to Agent Orange and made veterans who had them eligible for benefits.
Since 1991, it has spent over $155 million to aid people with disabilities in areas affected by Agent Orange or littered by unexploded bombs,
according to the U.S. State Department. The two countries have also cooperated to recover war dead, with the U.S. aiding Vietnam’s search for its own missing.
T
ruong Minh Phu, 20, centre, sits in a classroom with other students at a school for victims of Agent Orange in Da Nang, Vietnam, March 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Aniruddha Ghosal)© The Associated Press
Cleaning up Agent Orange is expensive and often dangerous. Heavily polluted soil needs to be unearthed and heated in large ovens to very high temperatures, while less contaminated soil can be buried in secure landfills.
Despite years of work, large sites still need to cleared. In Da Nang, where an air base was contaminated during storage and transportation of Agent Orange, the U.S. completed a $110 million cleanup in 2018 but an area the size of 10 soccer fields still remains heavily contaminated.
