55 years - the pain of Agent Orange still remains

(Baonghean.vn) -The American war in Vietnam ended more than forty years ago, but its consequences are still deep and painful. Among them, the "pain of Agent Orange/dioxin" still torments and torments many Vietnamese families from generation to generation.

On August 10, 1961, the US military sprayed the first liters of toxic chemicals on South Vietnam, starting a brutal 10-year chemical war during the invasion of Vietnam. According to the US Department of Defense, from 1961 to 1971, the US military sprayed 72 million liters of toxic chemicals on South Vietnam, parts of Laos and Cambodia, including 44 million liters of Agent Orange containing 170 kg of dioxin, an extremely toxic substance that caused many diseases such as cancer, nervous breakdown, immune system decline, reproductive complications and birth defects...

America sprayed toxic chemicals whose consequences the Vietnamese people still suffer hundreds of years later.

More than 26,000 villages in Southern Vietnam were sprayed and more than 3,000 villages were directly affected with a population of 2.1 to 4.8 million people. Currently, in the whole country of Vietnam, there are about 150,000 children with congenital disabilities such as paralysis, mental retardation, blindness, muteness, deafness and other disabilities. The families and the children themselves are living in difficult, painful and worried circumstances both materially and mentally, both physically and mentally, and also about housing and daily food and medicine. And it is not known when the fathers and mothers of those children will be able to rest when they are always worried about who will take care of them if they die.

As many researchers have said, the Vietnam War caused by the US was one of the most catastrophic wars in human history and its consequences still have a severe impact on many generations, the most serious of which is the harmful effects of Agent Orange, also known as dioxin. The sound of war has stopped after more than 40 years, but the ultimate suffering and tears still flow in the families who are victims of this destructive poison.

Agent Orange has turned many fertile, productive lands into dead lands.

It has been more than half a century since the US imperialists used dioxin on the battlefield of Vietnam to serve the unjust war, but the pain is still there. “I have eyes but I cannot see, I have beautiful lips but I cannot laugh and talk, I have hands but I cannot caress, I have legs but I cannot walk, I have a heart but I do not know sadness or joy…”, that is the image of Agent Orange victims carrying with them the excruciating pain of the body and the emptiness in the soul. So now, soothing the pain of Agent Orange is no longer the responsibility of any individual or organization, but it is the common responsibility of the whole society; so that we will know how to appreciate and live more meaningfully in this life.

Innocent eyes appear on the extremely miserable faces of children born to fathers infected with Agent Orange/dioxin.

55 years have passed since the anti-American resistance war, the lives of Vietnamese people are changing day by day, hour by hour, the country is increasingly stable, developing and affirming its position in the international arena. Many skyscrapers have sprung up, many projects have been and are being built, young men and women happily go to school, farmers are happy with the bountiful harvest. But somewhere behind the massive tall buildings or the green bamboo fences, the vast fields, there are still countless Vietnamese soldiers and their families who are silently suffering the losses and the consequences of the "chemical" war that the American imperialists caused.

Agent Orange - dioxin has left extreme pain for many Vietnamese families.

After the day peace was restored and the country was liberated and unified, the brothers and sisters - those who had joined the army, guerrillas, youth volunteers, militiamen, road construction or supply and ambulance in the resistance war against American imperialism all wished most to have a peaceful life with their beloved families, to work, to study and build families to make up for the years of difficult and arduous fighting. But for many people, family happiness and joy when the country achieved peace and unification were only momentary when they had to fight persistently with their own health problems and were even more heartbroken when they became sad, disastrous with the illness and even the death of their children.

There are places where many mothers have sent their sons off and were lucky enough to welcome their beloved children back safe and sound, and there are also many girls with rosy cheeks welcoming their husbands and lovers back from the front. But that joy did not last long when their most beloved ones suddenly became deformed in all sorts of shapes, and it was even more heartbreaking when the wives who had carried them for nine months and ten days in the hope of having a child to make life more joyful, the children born were monsters who died immediately upon birth, or had congenital disabilities, mental illness, or were unconscious.

Many bodies of infants who died from the effects of Agent Orange are kept at the research facility of Tu Du Maternity Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City.

That is also the ultimate pain of millions of victims exposed to Agent Orange in this small country of Vietnam. Over the years, although the Party, the State, all levels and sectors have always paid thoughtful and practical attention to the victims infected with this evil poison. August 10th every year is also an occasion for everyone in society to join hands to act for the victims of Agent Orange/dioxin, to ease some of the great pain in each family. However, the pain of Agent Orange/dioxin and its lingering consequences has long been a painful thing. That is why we can understand the sacrifices, losses as well as the bravery and heroic fighting against the invaders of previous generations so that the Vietnamese people can have a peaceful and developed life like today.

Agent Orange - dioxin has left many serious consequences for the Vietnamese people.

I think that every Vietnamese person and especially the young generation of Vietnamese youth - those born when the country was completely liberated and unified, should join hands to protect and build Vietnam to become more and more beautiful and developed. Along with that, let's join hands to help the families and victims who are the consequences of this dangerous poison with both material and spiritual, with both actions and words to help them rise up in life and ease the pain and loss they have to go through, that is the responsibility of every Vietnamese person, of the whole community and of humanity.

Peace

(Synthetic)