Fallen Leaves, Broken Lives

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Though he was disabled from his service, he remained in the military until 1990. Then he received two years of reeducation. "I came here to help other handicapped people," Dinh explains, "because there are so few good chances for the handicapped in a country as poor as Viet Nam." About the suffering caused by the war he said, as do most Vietnamese, "I do not think Americans made the war, but were forced to obey their government. It was a very hard time for everybody."

The Vietnamese are not alone in their suffering. On my most recent reconciliation journey to Viet Nam, in May 2004, two American veterans traveling with me were afflicted with Agent Orange-specific disabilities.

Lynn Kohl worked as a nurse in the Central Highlands during the war. "When I gave birth to my daughters, I did what I thought was best -- I breast-fed them," she reports. "I did not realize that Agent Orange is stored in fatty tissue [including breasts], and so my daughters received megadoses. In addition, both girls were born with medical and other problems associated with AO. One father was a vet, the other was not, discounting the Veterans Affairs theory that AO is transferred through sperm. They're suffering because of this, and my guilt has been tremendous. The VA refuses to address these problems and the M.D.'s I've gone to -- and there have been many -- have said things like, 'She's spoiled, you're an overanxious mother.' Or they knew nothing about AO and said if it did exist it wasn't their problem, it was a government problem! How can you fight that?"

Jim Helt, now 63, was an Air Force officer during the war. "I was exposed to Agent Orange during my yearlong assignment at Bien Hoa Air Base," he explains. "After my return home, I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer; I believe it was related to exposure to Agent Orange. Later I became diabetic. I do not fit the profile of a diabetic and believe it is related to Agent Orange exposure. It took decades for the VA to recognize diabetes as an outcome of Agent Orange exposure."

Robert Cagle, another veteran who was traveling with us, has several friends who suffer like Kohl and Helt. He speaks of one colleague who, "like me, was a grunt who humped through the bush for a year." Fifteen years ago he was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes (even though there's no history of the disease in his family), and now he has faulty heart valves (which has also been linked to Agent Orange). "Over the years I have met numerous people who have suffered such effects," Cagle continues. "My heart goes out to them as I see the damage it has done to their lives and their insignificance to our government, which caused this to happen."

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