Essay On Agent Orange In Vietnam

Words: 601
Pages: 3

War can be an ugly affair that much is true. However, what happens after often goes undocumented and unpublicized. During the Vietnam War sprayed a herbicide called Agent Orange over southern Vietnam. It contained the chemical dioxin which has been linked to infertility, birth defects, and even cancer. In this picture brothers Nguyen Van Chuoi and Nguyen Van Trong are shown as the suffer from the repercussions of Agent Orange decades after the war. This untitled photograph of a Vietnamese family depicts how a father is trying his best to care for his disabled sons while living in a poverty stricken area of the country

While both the father and the two boys appear to be wearing newer clothing all three show signs of living in a malnourished and poverty stricken area. All three show signs of copious amounts of hard labor, especially the father. He is incredibly tan and has wrinkles that age him far beyond his years. The father works extremely hard to be able to provide his sons with the bare minimum required to survive. An adequate amount of furniture can be seen however it looks to be old and worn. Their walls and floors are made of concrete with no rugs or drapery showing a barely adequate and impoverished style of living. The father's cheeks are sunken in and gaunt while the two boys faces still have a roundness to them. Money may be tight and the father may eat less at meals in
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Both of the boy's faces display symptoms of Down Syndrome. Symptoms include a flat face, small ears and slanted eyes. Agent Orange has been linked to the causation of Down Syndrome. The older boys legs are incredibly thin with almost no muscle or fat. They are even reminiscent of a the legs of a paraplegic whose muscles have atrophied. It is possible that the older boy suffers from Spina Bifida which has been shown to have a strong link to the