VNM: Dealing With The Leagcy Of Agent Orange In Vietnam

CAM LO, VIETNAM -MARCH 8: Le Van Khanh,38 (left) stands next to his mother Nguyen Thi Huyen March 8, in Cam Lo, in Quang Tri province, Vietnam. Le Van was born deaf, mentally handicapped with legs that are deformed, he is wheelchair bound most of the time and his elderly mother can't physically handle the responsibility of her handicapped son.Nguyen lost 2 children in addition as well and gets a small stipend from the government. Many of the families have had little access to medical care and don't even understand the medical term for the disability that their children have since birth. They only know that the defoliant used by the US military during the Vietnam war called Agent orange caused this. More than 30 years after the war in Vietnam, a battle is still being fought to help people suffering from the effects of Agent Orange. Between 1961 and 1971, the U.S military sprayed nearly 20 million gallons of Agent Orange and other herbicides across Vietnam in an attempt to kill vegetation that hid the enemy. Much of it contained the toxic nerve gas called dioxin. After so many years has past, studies have stated that lingering health and environmental problems effected an estimated 3 million Vietnamese, including 150,000 children. As a result an increased number of Vietnamese children have been born with severe birth defects and Down syndrome since the war ended in 1975. Recently, Vietnamese and U.S policymakers have finally started the first phase to clean up environmental damage leftover from the chemical defoliant. The action plan urges the U.S government to provide an estimated $30 million annually over 10 years to clean up sites still contaminated by dioxin. (Photo by Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)