Khanh Le-Week 8

From reading "Scorched Earth: Legacies of Chemical Warfare in Vietnam" by Fred A. Wilcox, I am disappointed, but not surprised. The more we learn about all the problematic things that the U.S. commits, it’s incredibly disheartening. I understand why the U.S.  kept the damaging effects of AO under the radar, since they wanted the war to continue. But how can you risk the lives of millions in a foreign country in order to continue a war that not everyone wants? It furthers shows how important it is for this information to be spread, so that history will not repeat itself. My family, although Vietnamese, has never talked about Agent Orange, for reasons which I am unaware. Reading about the mutations, like the headless baby being born or the children born with multiple fingers and heads, shocks me because I never knew that AO had such severe consequences. And to think that AO is still affecting those generations after the war makes me wonder if it will ever stop: the pain and the suffering. This legacy of environmental degradation that the U.S. has participated in should be more well-known, in my opinion. When we watched Chau Beyond the Lines in class from Netflix, it was so heartbreaking to see these children in these conditions, unaware of why it happened to them. The children were treated like animals, the hospital a zoo for spectators. It was painful to see Chau have his dreams of being an artist go down the drain, when no one there believes in him because of his disabilities. This is the side of the war that so many Americans are blind to; these children have goals and aspirations and now all those dreams are hindered because of Agent Orange.

Question: How can we educate more people about Agent Orange to hold the U.S. accountable for these damages?

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