STANFORD, Calif. - For me, it has been awhile since I went to a student-organized event that talked about something painful, yet important. Okay, maybe it has only been a year-and-a-half, but a year-and-a-half is a long time when you're young! Stanford VSA along with local groups and institutions sponsored a delegation of survivors of Agent Orange to speak about their life affected by this toxic chemical. The Bay Area is the last stop of their American campaign tour, ending eloquently right before December 10, the International Human Rights Day.

Photos from top: Mrs. Đặng Thị Hồng Nhựt; Vietnam Veteran (unidentified); Mr. Hồ Sỹ Hải (left); Dr. Nguyễn Trọng Nhân (right).

The Human Story of Survival

We watched a short documentary of the harrowing tales of malformed children and people stricken with disease. It didn't sit well with the food they provided there that I happened to eat before the film.

So I had a chance to listen to Mrs. Đặng Thị Hồng Nhựt - who during the war was a resistance organizer - about her miscarriages and intestinal tumors. Even though there was a translator there, and despite my apparent illiteracy in Vietnamese, I could understand her words, her gratitude for seeing young people in America taking interest in the cause.

I listened to Mr. Hồ Sỹ Hải, a truck driver for the supply lines along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Aside from suffering from lymphatic cancer, his daughter died at the age of four, and his son suffers from a mental disorder.

I listened to a peace activist Vietnam Veteran who described how he and his brother were affected by Agent Orange. During Veterans' Day last month (November 11), rather than marching in uniform, 30 veterans marched with an orange shirt with a large banner demanding compensation for victims of Agent Orange.

The final speaker is Dr. Nguyễn Trọng Nhân, an ophthalmologist who was once the Minister of Health, President of the Vietnam National Red Cross, and is now the VP of the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin. He provided the more authoritative information about the effects of dioxin and the struggle thus far. Dr. Nhân wanted to emphasize that the aftermath of chemical warfare affected all sides of the war, and thus is not an issue of revenge.

Taking Action

I knew about Agent Orange a few years ago from a workshop Khoi Ta put on at a Black April Commemoration event organized by the UCLA Vietnamese Student Union, although the lawsuit was a more recent development. I looked at the young crowd and wondered what they had in mind. Gaining awareness of the issue was a pretty important step. Maintaining momentum is much harder. If there was something I wanted to say, it is that if we don't take care of this problem of punishing the U.S. war machine for the consequences of its action, the U.S. government will continue to wage war on other countries and breach international treaties, while the military industrial complex will continue to earn handsome profits.

There are petitions available, and donations that are needed to continue this campaign, and the need to raise public awareness; that much we can do now and individually. There has been talks between the Vietnamese and Bill Clinton as well as the Department of Defense concerning a joint humanitarian effort to help these victims of Agent Orange. One audience member pointed out a 1973 bill in which Congress allocated $3 billion to aid the victims. To date, no Vietnamese has seen a penny of that money, nor seen any collaborative action upon the American government's part.

And finally, the thought did cross my mind: these people fought against my grandfather and his brother, who were in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam. But I feel that was a feud fought in their generation. The war is not mine, as much as I thank them for risking their lives, else I would not have been born. But I am born free and with that freedom I can make my own choices; the affected children in Vietnam do not have a choice. Even before we consider their human rights of free speech and freedom of religion, the deadly toxins born from a war settled 30 years ago are killing them. The host mentioned that there were a few children who were able to survive and have taken up the issue personally; even a few set up blogs. Some of my friends fight against the oppression of the Vietnamese Communist Party. But I would like to ask if they think the fight against the U.S. war machine is a worthy cause as well.

To learn more visit http://www.vn-agentorange.org

With a perspective,

Bảo Thiên Ngô 寶天吳