A Legacy of Agent Orange

The Forgotten Ones

Photo: Michelle Le: Luc Nguyen is a former South Vietnamese soldier, who worked as a translator for the U.S. military.

Nov 22, 2010 - California is home to many Vietnamese-Americans who fought alongside the U.S. during the Vietnam war. Over time, these soldiers developed cancers because of their exposure to the chemical defoliant Agent Orange. But while American-born vets can get medical care and disability compensation for their Agent Orange-related illnesses, America's former allies get no such benefits.



Luc Nguyen is now a naturalized citizen, but in the 1960s he was a South Vietnamese soldier, working as a translator for the U.S. military. South Vietnamese soldiers frequently got Agent Orange on their skin and clothing when patrolling jungles that had been sprayed. Others were exposed when they sprayed agent orange by hand or helped transport and mix the chemicals. {read rest}

Agent Orange: A Tool of Warfare

Department of Defense/AP: A U.S. Air Force C-123 flies low along a South Vietnamese highway spraying defoliants on dense jungle growth in May, 1966 during the Vietnam War.

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Nov 22, 2010 - The Vietnam War was a guerilla war America fought mostly in the jungle, facing an enemy who was often invisible in the thick greenery, and who could disappear along hidden mountain trails. In this kind of fighting, U.S. forces used a weapon known as Agent Orange to try to eliminate the advantage the opposition had in knowing the land.

Agent Orange was a highly concentrated blend of herbicides used to kill the jungle canopy that provided cover for North Vietnamese soldiers. From the early 1960s to the '70s, American planes strafed the landscape of South Vietnam with toxic defoliants, eradicating the vegetation on about 4 million acres.

Soldiers and their South Vietnamese allies also sprayed Agent Orange by hand around the edges of U.S bases, to kill the border vegetation. There were no gloves, respirators or special clothing to protect the American and South Vietnamese soldiers from the chemicals in Agent Orange. Soldiers often patrolled in jungles that had just been sprayed, getting their skin and clothing wet with the chemical. {read rest}

Explore the entire 'Forgotten Ones' series, yet to be aired as top post was part one on the 22nd

Part 2: The Scars of Agent Orange

23 November 2010 - Vietnam says more than 3 million people suffer from disabilities and cancers because of Agent Orange. We travel to Vietnam to explore the plight of America's former allies. {read rest}

Part 3: The Environmental Impact: 35 Years Later, A Haunted Landscape

35 years after the war in Vietnam ended, the chemical Agent Orange still pervades the soil of the South East Asian nation. We look at the efforts to clean-up the contamination that lingers in the land and people of Vietnam. Reporter: K. Oanh Ha. {read rest}

Vietnam Agent Orange Relief & Responsibility Campaign