Dr. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong took center stage in Manila on November 16, 2024, following decades of seeking justice and relief for victims of Agent Orange, to receive Asia’s most prestigious award. Her journey to the Ramon Magsaysay Awards began during the Vietnam War, an armed conflict between then South Vietnam and North Vietnam that took place in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, sparked by the spread of communism.
During the war, which claimed the lives of more than one million people, the US troops resorted to the tactical use of Agent Orange to expose the guerillas’ stronghold in the jungles of South Vietnam. An estimated 150,000 children in Vietnam were born with severe birth defects–extra fingers and toes, hernia, cleft palate, and mental disabilities–as a result of Agent Orange poisoning during the Vietnam War. The Vietnamese government also estimated that 400,000 people died from the toxic herbicide.
Agent Orange, a herbicide, was sprayed over forests in South Vietnam for ten years, said Dr. Phuong, an obstetrician-gynecologist. The goals were to defoliate the jungles that served as refuge for the guerillas, and to kill the crops in an attempt to starve them, undermining the armed resistance in effect.
Known as Operation Ranch Hand, the US herbicidal warfare program in Southern Vietnam consumed 19 million gallons of herbicides and 11 million gallons of Agent Orange from 1961 to 1971, she said during a lecture in Manila on November 8.
The other herbicides sprayed over South Vietnam by the US troops include Agent Green, Agent Pink, Agent Purple, Agent Blue, and Agent White, which, together with Agent Orange, were dubbed as Rainbow Herbicides. “There are many kinds of dioxin and all of them are toxic,” the doctor said.
Agent Orange accounted for 65 percent of toxic chemicals sprayed over South Vietnam during the war, Dr. Phuong noted. Agent Orange is toxic. It is laden with TCDD (2,37,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin).
Dr. Phuong pointed out that dioxin is an unwanted and unavoidable byproduct in the manufacturing process of 2,4,5-T, a synthetic herbicide used to control weeds and defoliate plants.
HARROWING STORIES
The use of Agent Orange in South Vietnam left an estimated 4.8 million Vietnamese exposed to dioxin.
Harrowing stories started to unfold in 1965, the year the US government deployed more troops in South Vietnam after it saw they were losing the war to the communists, and the year the Students for a Democratic Society March called to end the war. The march became the largest peace protest in US history at that time.
“While serving as an intern at the Medical University of Saigon, now Ho Chi Minh City, I encountered a profoundly disturbing event during a nightshift,” Dr. Phuong said. “I delivered a severely deformed newborn-one without a brain, only a face. The size was horrifying.”
The newborn’s mother cried when she saw her newborn, she recounted. The mother said ‘Oh my God, I gave birth to a monkey.’ The mother and the entire family were devastated. They thought the baby was a punishment for their sins. Dr. Phuong recalled she had sleepless nights over that disturbing event. But that incident was only one of the many more she would witness in the following days, years, and decades.
“It was not an isolated case,” she said. “I witnessed similar incidents frequently with a noticeable increase in congenital anomalies.” Children in areas sprayed with Agent Orange showed abnormalities, including extra toes and fingers, hernias, mental disabilities, and cleft palate.
In the 1970s, during the late part of the war, breast milk from women in South Vietnam was examined. High levels of dioxin were found in the milk. High levels of dioxin were also found in the blood of US troops who served in the war.
INVESTIGATE CAUSES
The unusual and alarming abnormalities among newborns in Vietnam prompted her to investigate the cause. So, she looked for references to probe into the root of the growing incidence of newborn abnormalities.
Dr. Phuong found in 1974 a report by the US National Academy of Sciences on Agent Orange. The report led her to suspect that Agent Orange has a link to the unusual and alarming number of newborns with deformities. Dr. Phuong’s investigations in the 1980s led her to finally establish the link of Agent Orange to the newborn abnormalities.
The highly toxic dioxin has not only been associated with birth defects but also with cancers and other conditions. Cancers linked to Agent Orange include chronic B-cell leukemia, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, prostate cancer, lung cancer, and sarcoma.
The dioxin’s half-life has the ability to stay in the human body for seven to 11 years, she explained. This toxic substance can remain in water, soil, and human and animal fat tissues. It can enter the body by ingestion, inhalation, and skin contact. According to Dr. Phuong, the TCDD is the most toxic among known dioxins. The safety daily limit of dioxin intake is smaller than a single drop of water in an Olympic-size swimming pool.
About three million Vietnamese were affected by the toxicity of Agent Orange, leaving the country with deaths, newborn abnormalities, and deadly diseases during and after the war that took place from 1955 to 1975.
“The main victims were civilians in villages repeatedly contaminated when they ate crops and drank water that had been sprayed with Agent Orange,” she said. Agent Orange’s effect on humans could stay for four generations and even beyond, Dr. Phuong noted.
She set up the Lang Hoa Binh, or Peace Village, at the Tu Du Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City, to seek justice for the victims of Agent Orange. The Peace Village was also established to look for solutions for the conditions of the victims. The Peace Village has also become home to the Vietnam Association for the Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA).
The VAVA, a non-profit organization representing the people affected by this toxic chemical, was founded on January 10, 2004. Currently, it has an estimated 370,000 members across 64 provinces in Vietnam. “I have dedicated myself to working alongside three million Vietnamese victims through our networks across 64 provinces,” Dr. Phuong said.
In 2007, the American Public Health Association urged the US government, as well as other organizations linked to Agent Orange, to provide funds for communities affected by the chemical. The association also recommended providing the affected people with medical services, equipment, and other assistance.
The VAVA has raised more than US$172 million in cash and in-kind for the victims of Agent Orange as of November 2023.
The resources are appropriated for financial assistance, scholarship grants, health checkups and treatment, vocational training, and employment.
“The victims of Agent Orange and their families are not just figures on a page,” she said. “They are real people, real lives. Each has his struggle and story.” On April 30, 1975, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese forces, ending the war that was fought for 19 years. The following year, North Vietnam and South Vietnam were reunified into the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Agent Orange has also left Vietnam with environmental destruction. An estimated 3,100, 000 hectares of forests were defoliated by Operation Ranch Hand. An estimated 500,000 acres of crops were damaged.
Experts opposed the herbicidal warfare during the Vietnam War. In 1964, the Federation of American Scientists slammed the use of defoliants. In 1966, the American Association for the Advancement of Science urged an investigation into the use of tactical herbicides in South Vietnam.
Seventeen Nobel laureates and 5,000 other scientists called for immediate termination of the herbicidal warfare. Dr. Phuong made a call for an end to all forms of war.
RECOGNITION
“This prestigious recognition sends a strong and resounding message to the global community that we need international understanding, not warfare,” she said. “We need conflict resolutions and not weapons of mass destruction.”
Dr. Phuong pledged the recognition she received to the people who perished from and were affected by Operation Ranch Hand. “I dedicate the Ramon Magsaysay Award to the millions of victims of Agent Orange,” she said.
The Vietnamese government estimated the number of deaths from Agent Orange to have reached 400,000, and 150,000 children were born with severe birth abnormalities. The Department of Veteran Affairs estimated the number of US military personnel exposed to Agent Orange at 2.6 million.
The Ramon Magsaysay Award laureate called on people across the globe to promote peace and unity. “Together, we can turn the page of humanity’s darkest chapter and write a new story,” Dr. Phuong invited the audience. “A story of peace, of healing, of unity. The pen is in our hands. Let’s write this new chapter together.”
