" I died in Vietnam, but I didn't even know it."
-Paul Reutershan on the " The Today Show" shortly before his death caused by cancer, 1978
After the Vietnam War, Vietnamese civilians and U.S. Veterans began showing symptoms of multiple illnesses. Many of those exposed to Agent Orange developed diseases such as Diabetes, Hodgkin’s Disease, and Prostate Cancer. Their children often suffered from birth defects, such as spina bifida and mental disabilities. |
"I know I was exposed to Agent Orange when the War was over and we came home because it caused different types of cancers and caused different types of disease. I developed Prostate Cancer which was determined by being in Vietnam in the area that was being sprayed with Agent Orange. Right now, I'm being treated at the Buffalo Hospital in New York...."
-Joseph B. Pasek, former Vietnam War medic, in a personal interview, 2018
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"I don't want to tell the family yet, but their boy will never fully recover. He is already suffering from total paralysis. The most we can do now is send them home with a little money."
-Dr. Viet Nhan, Vietnamese Red Cross Doctor, 2003
"Vietnam veterans have a roughly 50% increased risk of developing non-Hodgkin's lymphoma 15 to 25 years after military service in Vietnam....Veterans who served in locations other than Vietnam do not have a similar increased risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma."
-From the 1990 CDC Report, "The Association of Selected Cancers with Service in the U.S. Military in Vietnam."
"Dioxin was poison." |
"When compared to non-veterans’ children in the registry, the children of Vietnam veterans have shown consistent increases in learning, attention, and behavioral disorders; all types of skin disorders; problems with tooth development; allergic conditions and asthma; immune system disorders including chronic infections; some childhood cancers; and endocrine problems including thyroid disorders and childhood diabetes. More and more studies of prenatal exposures to dioxins and similar chemicals are adding support for these associations."
-Betty Mekdeci, Executive Director of Birth Defect Research for Children,
"[Agent Orange],one of the most toxic materials known causing not only skin lesions, but also liver damage."
-Dow Chemical, 1965 (six years before the end of Agent Orange)