Vietnam war toxin still torments

Vietnam war toxin still torments

(EXCERPT) QUANG TRI PROVINCE, Vietnam - Do Duc Duyen was born with two
heads and is blind, deaf and utterly helpless.

The seven-year-old lies on a bamboo mattress at a hospital outside
central Quang Tri province, crying constantly.

Although he was born over two decades since the Vietnam War ended,
Duyen is nevertheless a victim of that tragic conflict. Doctors say he
is a victim of Agent Orange.

The Vietnamese government says there are three million victims of
Agent Orange in Vietnam, and that the number is growing as the
defoliant continues to contaminate livestock and fish eaten, By
Vietnamese decades after it was used.

"Two-thirds of the children I care for come from the areas where Agent
Orange was used during the war," says Dr Nguyen Thi Phuong Tan, the
head of Tu Du hospital's Peace Village where Duyen is one of 60
patients.

Abandoned by their parents and totally dependent on Tan and her 30
staff, the children of Agent Orange have little hope of a normal life.

Vietnam has been pressing the United States for years for compensation
for victims of Agent Orange, but Washington is reluctant to admit
liability, fearful of a slew of lawsuits.

"The Americans have not helped us at all. It costs $1,500 (793 pounds)
to diagnose a child as being deformed by A...

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---------------------------
Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com