Operation Ranch Hand – The code name for the U.S. military operation issued by President Kennedy for the aerial spraying of herbicides throughout Southeast Asia from 1962-1971. This is the story of a group of children whose lives have been defined by the grave mistake of a nation in a different hemisphere. It is not only a glimpse of their daily lives, but also an ominous presage of a potentially endless epidemic amongst the Vietnamese children, unless drastic measures are taken against the land pollution of Agent Orange.
Operation Ranch Hand – The code name for the U.S. military operation issued by President Kennedy for the aerial spraying of herbicides throughout Southeast Asia from 1962-1971.
During the Vietnam War, South Vietnam and parts of Laos were blanketed with an estimated 11 million gallons of a DNA-altering dioxin compound called Agent Orange. The objective to destroy crops and defoliate the Vietnamese jungle to deprive opposition forces of food and shelter was executed. However, the civilians and subsequent generations living in ‘hot spots’ were and still are plagued with the heinous effects of the chemical: sensory loss, physical malformations, and neurological conditions.
Commonly - and mistakenly - referred to as an orphanage, the Friendship Village in northern Vietnam is home to around 120 children and 60 Vietnam War veterans who were affected by Agent Orange. The grounds they inhabit are comprised of housing buildings, a school, a hospital, and an administrative office, most of which appear to be in a permanent state of construction. The quality of living conditions, education, and medical care of the children is insufficient, considering the vast range of their disabilities, both physical ¬and neurological. This is especially odd, considering the near continuous flow of material and cash donations made to the Village by organizations, schools, and private donors internationally.
The children, most of whose parents are not equipped for proper home care, are a tribe of their own. They raise each other with a distinct hierarchy that is beyond their years, with only a handful of overwhelmed women that oversee household duties and care of the more severely affected children. They are socially confined to these grounds as a result of the unfortunate stigma that is attached to the observably disabled in Vietnam.
Although over 50 years have crept by since Operation Ranch Hand, little progress has been made to detoxify the land that continues to claim innocent victims through its resources. A thorough effort must be made in environmental cleansing, as well as an educational provision to those living in ‘hot spots’ who unknowingly eat from, drink from, dwell and raise families on this soil. Future generations face the same health risks as those in the 1970s.
This is a story of the youth whose lives have been defined not by the mistakes of their own, their country or predecessors, but by those of a nation on the opposite side of the globe. It is not only a glimpse of their daily lives, but also an ominous presage of a potentially endless epidemic amongst the Vietnamese children, unless drastic measures are taken against the land pollution of Agent Orange.