The pain still haunts the families of Agent Orange victims.

The war has been over for more than half a century, but for those infected with Agent Orange/dioxin, the pain that Agent Orange left behind is still unspeakable, haunting them throughout their lives.

Daughter died then found out she was infected with Agent Orange

Mr. Nguyen Phuc Ba, 77 years old, from Bai Mac village, Thuong Quan commune, Kinh Mon town, Hai Duong province, was wearing a coat and sitting alone in front of the door of a simple brick house, his face sunken and thin. Seeing guests coming into the house, he quickly went to find an old fan and turned it on, but the blades remained still.

Mr. Nguyen Phuc Ba wears a coat all year round because he always feels cold. (Photo: Dang Ninh)

He smiled and said: “Since I returned from the battlefield, I have had malaria constantly, always feeling cold, I wear a coat in all four seasons. Rarely has a month gone by that I have not been tormented by 1-2 bouts of malaria, sometimes for a whole week, sometimes for 10 days. Therefore, I do not use a fan, let alone an air conditioner. When I go out, my children and grandchildren call me “crazy Mr. Ba, crazy Mr. Ba…”

Mr. Nguyen Phuc Ba joined the front in Quang Tri in 1968, working at Artillery Regiment 68, Division 325, Military Region 3.

After liberation, he was demobilized due to poor health, then his parents introduced him to start a family. Because he still had to worry about the economy , he went to work as a coal miner in Quang Ninh.

Disaster struck the family when the couple gave birth to their first daughter, Nguyen Thi Hanh (born in 1976), a child with shrunken limbs and a deformed body. For many years, the couple saved up and borrowed money to treat their daughter everywhere, but to no avail.

Mr. Ba said: "Hanh was born deformed. At the age of 5, she still could not walk or talk. Her cognition was also impaired, she could only sit in one place. My husband and I felt so sorry for our child that we were helpless."

Mr. Ba and his wife had another son and two daughters. Fortunately, Hanh's three younger siblings all had normal physical appearance, but they were not very agile, had poor health, and were often sick. Almost all the heavy work, big and small, in the house was shouldered by Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hien, Mr. Ba's wife, taking care of her disabled daughter and three children who were all slow to develop.

One day, Nguyen Thi Hanh fell into the neighbor's well. Mr. Ba choked up as he recalled: "That day, Hanh was still wandering around the village street, but she didn't come back that night. My wife, I, and many people went looking for her. It wasn't until noon the next day that we discovered Hanh's sandal next to the neighbor's well. That year, she was only 24 years old, had never known love, had never known the joys of life.

I still feel sorry for Hanh. Until she passed away, I still did not know that she was infected with Agent Orange from her father. It was not until 2003 that the local authorities took me to get tested that I learned that I had passed it on to my daughter. If only I had known sooner, Hanh would have been loved and sympathized with by everyone, and not shunned, rejected, and left alone forever...

Taking care of her husband and sick children all year round, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hien has been a wife and mother for almost her entire life. She suffered a stroke and passed away in 2017. Since learning that Mr. Ba was an Agent Orange victim, his three children, although not very active, have built a family, given birth to children and worked as factory workers with simple jobs.

Mr. Ba said sadly: “Only Nguyen Thi Hong, the third daughter, divorced her husband, he gave her and her mother the level 4 house behind the house, closest to him. Ms. Hong goes to work every day, raising a small child. “Every few days, my children and grandchildren come to visit me, sometimes I have malaria, I am sick but still have to endure alone, waiting for my children and grandchildren to come visit and take me to the hospital.”

The suffering of having a "different" husband and children

Different from the loneliness and desolation of Mr. Nguyen Phuc Ba's old age, the house of Mr. Bui Van Bem and his wife in Bai Mac village, Thuong Quan commune, has the sound of laughter from his wife, children and grandchildren.

Mr. Bui Van Bem and his wife were exhausted and in tears for their Agent Orange family. (Photo: Dang Ninh)

In 1968, he served in the Bien Hoa Artillery Regiment, Brigade 77, Air Defense - Air Force, Military Region 7, until May 1975. After liberation, he became a military commander in the Bien Hoa Provincial Team - Dong Nai Province. In 1980, Mr. Bem was demobilized.

Mr. Bem said, showing me a black and white photo of his fourth son with a pained look in his eyes: “Speaking of the pain of Agent Orange, look at this photo, all four children my wife and I gave birth to were like this. Each one was deformed, their skin was like a skinned frog, when they were born you could see all their internal organs, their bellies were swollen like they were 6-7 months pregnant.

Truly, those were the most miserable years for my husband and I, because every child we gave birth to was “different”. There were also many malicious comments around that, because my husband and I were evil in our previous lives, we were being punished in this life for not being able to give birth to a healthy child.

When giving birth to her first daughter, Ms. Bui Thi Bien (born in 1979), after giving birth, Ms. Doan Thi Nhieu, Mr. Bem's wife, was shocked and scared. She raised her hands to receive her child with trembling hands when she saw the silent eyes of the nurses around her, not saying words of congratulations like with other mothers.

Mrs. Nhieu, Mr. Bem's wife, recalled: "Holding the newborn baby home from the hospital, everyone happily welcomed him, but my family quietly took the baby into the inner room and wrapped him up."

Until he was 10 years old, Bien mostly played in the yard, rarely going outside. One after another, Nhieu and his wife gave birth to three more sons after Bien, all of whom were born with bodies identical to his sister. And their second son also died after a serious illness when he was only 4 years old.

Mrs. Nhieu said: “I cannot describe all the suffering I went through having my husband and children infected with Agent Orange. There were times when I was exhausted and ran out of tears when all three children and my husband were hospitalized at the same time.

Once, after taking care of my husband for 10 days in the hospital, I brought him home, and then I took my children to the hospital one by one. With the cost of medicine and exhaustion, my family didn’t know how many more days we could hold on.”

In 2003, Mr. Bem received the Agent Orange victim allowance, and the malicious words and curses on his family stopped. All three children of Mr. Bem and his wife are now adults, but their health is poor, their skin is more wrinkled and rough as they grow up, especially the youngest son Bui Van Ban has poor eyesight, his liver and spleen were removed, and he has undergone 4 major surgeries to save his life.

Now Mr. Ban has a wife and three children, but his son Bui Van Bao (born 2009) has crippled limbs, requires daily assistance, and is unconscious.

Sitting next to her husband, Mrs. Nhieu said with tears in her eyes: “My family has a hard life, so we have to endure it. Now, my grandson Bao is the most pitiful. His father is in poor health, his mother works far away, and all my life I have been taking care of my children and raising my disabled grandson. I only hope that when I die, my grandson will be able to take care of himself so that his life will be less miserable.”

Mr. Nguyen Minh Phuc, Chairman of the Association of Agent Orange Victims of Thuong Quan Commune, said: “Mr. Ba and Mr. Bem’s families are particularly disadvantaged victims in the locality. The commune has more than 10 cases of Agent Orange infection. Among them, the third generation includes Mr. Bui Van Bem’s grandchildren, but so far they have not been confirmed to receive state subsidies.

Furthermore, for families of Agent Orange victims, although the children do not show obvious signs of suffering from their fathers' consequences, their health and awareness are poor. Even though they have suffered hardships all their lives, they and their families have to take care of each other. We in the locality can only provide moral support."

Sharing the pain of local Agent Orange victims, Colonel Vu Xuan Thu, Chairman of the Association of Agent Orange/dioxin Victims of Hai Duong Province, said: “Hai Duong Province currently has over 8,000 Agent Orange/dioxin victims, of which over 6,000 are direct victims and nearly 2,000 are indirect victims.

Colonel Vu Xuan Thu, Chairman of the Association of Agent Orange/Dioxin Victims of Hai Duong Province, presented gifts and visited the family of Mr. Vu Hong Ha, Hong Khe Commune, Binh Giang District (a family of three generations, father, son, and grandchild), all affected by Agent Orange. (Photo: Dang Ninh)

Of these, more than 100 victims are female. However, it is the mothers and wives in families with Agent Orange victims who suffer the most loss, pain, and humiliation in families with husbands and children infected with Agent Orange.”

According to Colonel Vu Xuan Thu, currently in Hai Duong province there are many elderly victims whose lives are difficult, in addition to the second and third generations who are also facing extremely difficult circumstances. They have suffered from the effects of toxic chemicals from their ancestors, were born in a vegetative state, cannot produce material wealth, and still need people to help with daily activities.

Agent Orange victims are in dire need of the whole society's cooperation and sharing, to help them ease the pain of Agent Orange that has haunted them throughout their lives, and to help Agent Orange victims stabilize their lives soon."

According to the Vietnam Association of Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin, the chemical warfare conducted by the US in Vietnam exposed 4.8 million Vietnamese people, more than 3 million of whom were victims; many of whom suffered from serious illnesses, deformities, disabilities, and mental retardation.

The consequences of Agent Orange have been passed on to the fourth generation, causing countless tragedies that many generations of Vietnamese people have had to endure.

Source: https://baoquocte.vn/nhung-noi-dau-van-con-deo-dang-cac-gia-dinh-nan-nhan-chat-doc-da-cam-237892.html