She was born with spinal and deformed limbs for nearly 40 years – most likely because her father had been exposed to the agent orange used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War, which was Nicos Tim Nigak Dim ( Nguyen Thi Ngoc Diem) finally got help from Manchester United. nation.
A U.S.A.I.D. funded program helped her graphic design training in 2022 and helped her find a job. Even though the company closed a few months ago, she was still hopeful: The same plan for Orange victims was to deliver a new computer or a small loan.
I was the first to tell her support would never come. President Trump has frozen U.S. Agency for International Development and plans to fire nearly everyone associated with humanitarian agencies.
Ms. Dim told me that her little body curl was curl curl in a wheelchair, under the crucifix on the wall. “Agent Orange comes from the United States – it’s used here, and that makes us victims,” she said. “A little bit of support for people like us means a lot, but at the same time, it’s the responsibility of the United States. .”
Just like Mr. Trump and Elon Musk Gut USAID, it can now be added to the effect list: Two months before the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, the ceremony has been planned and they have been demolished The main channel of the United States to make corrections, the foundation of the partnership is intended to be a bastion against China.
As many as 3 million Vietnamese were affected by Orange Agents, including 150,000 children with severe developmental problems.
Other issues related to U.S. military engagement, addressing the painful legacy of chemicals used in wartime as dewall, provides the U.S. with the power of opportunity to integrate past and present.
It has stopped now. Cleaning polluted bulldozers at a former U.S. air force base in southern Vietnam (both countries ultimately want to use) has remained silent. About 1,000 mine demolition workers were sent home in central Vietnam.
With assistance to the victims of Agent Orange, Mr. Trump has largely stalled for 30 years of progress to summon former enemies, including two armed forces, in addition to efforts to find and determine the missing war death in Vietnam. The troops still feel whether they trust each other.
While Vietnam’s leaders are cautious about the Trump administration in hopes of avoiding its punitive tariffs, they regret the loss of war legacy plans. They have long regarded this work as a prerequisite for almost everything else.
U.S. officials of the lifelong construction bilateral bonds were particularly angry and signed an open complaint letter and condemned them to think it was a completely misleading move.
“One of the things I know about Vietnamese is that they want to know they can rely on us; we don’t lose interest and go away. The government is doing it.”
U.S. military commanders believe that Vietnam has a strategic geographical location and is crucial to maintaining stability in Asia, especially as China becomes more active on shipping route boundaries and islands near the Vietnamese coast.
Since 2018, U.S. Navy warships have made several port visits to Vietnam. More is expected. The Pentagon supports assistance as a sign of alliance building tool, with half of the funds that the U.S. Agency for International Development Managing Agent Orange cleanup comes from the Department of Defense.
Maybe some of them can survive. According to the official accounts of Defense Minister Pete Hegseth and Vietnamese Defense Minister General Phan Van Giang on February 7, Mr. Hegss “emphasized the department’s issue of war legacy issues Support for continuous efforts.”
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Thursday to temporarily lift the U.S. Agency for International Development’s funding freeze, setting evidence of compliance for Tuesday’s deadline.
But as of Monday in Vietnam, the shutdown is still in effect. Even if funds are returned, a year that is designed to recover from the darkness of a brutal war has caused fundamental damage in a way that has been used to both countries as a knife is stuffed It’s like entering an old wound.
From enemies to companions
Fighting veterans are the original reconciliators. Initially, they partnered at the squad level and got rid of the unexploded battlefield. But once Washington and Hanoi join, the bigger problem is solved, starting with Da Nang Airport.
It is the core of removing vegetation with Agent Orange, named after the colored stripes on its barrel and contains 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (the most harmful substance ever One of them) is notorious.
At first, no one knew whether the land poisoned at the airport could be safe. The estimated cost of remediation is twice as high. But after seven years and over $115 million in U.S. aid, it’s clean. So clean, Mr. Trump landed there in 2018 with Air Force One.
The Bien Hoa Air Base, formerly about 20 miles outside of Saigon, is a more difficult challenge: a 10-year, $450 million project involving the treatment of a sufficiently polluted earth to fill 200 Olympic-sized swimming pools . So far, the United States has donated more than $160 million, a $300 million commitment from the management of the United States Agency for International Development.
Tetra Tech, a U.S. engineering firm that hired by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), did not respond to an email asking about its status.
When I visited the busy neighborhoods around the base last week, a Vietnamese officer confirmed the cleanup had stopped, causing anxiety in the city. Many nearby houses are within the periphery of the base until their footprints are condensed.
Dinh Thi Lan, 56, told me that in 1991 she was one of the first to move to the streets adjacent to the base and polluted lakes. In seasonal floods, the fish sometimes disappear.
“I ate the fish,” she said. “I’m worried.”
Behind her, in a back room, I could see a picture of fresh-eyed hair, with a candle on a deep wooden table.
“My husband,” she told me. “He died of gastric cancer in 2009. He was 39.”
Looking for influence
During the war, Dong Nai Province and Bien HOA became the logistics center for North Vietnamese soldiers on their southeastern edge, preparing to take Saigon.
Prior to this, the U.S. military tried to deprive food and cover of emerald green scenery.
Pilots usually fly 150 feet to the ground. They sprayed 56% of Dong Nai with nearly 1.8 million gallons of agent orange – more than any other province in Vietnam.
Truong Thi Nguyet, 75, joined Dong Nai’s guerrillas at the age of 16. After the war, she established the first rehabilitation center in Vietnam against people with disabilities caused by agents Orange, which banned the United States in 1971.
In remote villages, she found dozens of boys and girls missing or deformed, deaf, cerebral palsy, cognitive impairment, and sometimes all of the above. One morning she found a poor family so overwhelmed that they put their daughter with severe disabilities in a cage outside.
“I never thought I would tell anyone this story,” Ms. Nguyt said as I visited her home in Din Quinn Township. “It’s so painful, I’m very angry.”
“I tried to raise some money and convince my family to build a small room in the house,” she added. “After a while, with financial support, they did.”
Most of the funds for the rehabilitation center come from the Vietnamese government. But the sign on the door announced that USDA provided equipment in 2020: a few tables and a metal bed; a playroom with a climbing wall and a pile of candy-colored plastic balls.
Since 1991, the U.S. government has contributed approximately $155 million to improve the lives of disabled people in areas affected by agents’ orange and residual explosives, according to the State Department.
The U.S. Agency for International Development programs that benefit graphic designer Ms. Diem are limited in scope. Last year, only 45 agents Orange victims (of 9,000) received less than $800 in interest loans. Nguyen Van Thinh, 47, said club head of 260 people with disabilities, said some bought scooters and others invested in goats.
Ms. Diem is one of 11 women who received smaller loans under the Social Inclusion Program this year. Her commitment and perseverance are undeniable. After graduating from high school, she left home at college and convinced her friends and strangers to take her to class or the bathroom. She received her degree in Information Technology.
Now all she wants is a computer for the design work – the support the United States promised to her, the company polluted her country and burned her body.
“I want to stay connected with the world,” she told me. “I want to reduce the burden.”
