The Vietnam Agent Orange victim delegation arrived in San Francisco in the US on June 10 to attend the first oral argument for a lawsuit before the US Court of Appeals scheduled on June 18. The delegation includes:

Tran Xuan Thu

Chief of Delegation, Vice-President, General Secretary of VAVA Plaintiff, on behalf of VAVA in the Class Action lawsuit.

- Professor, Doctor of Science and Technology.

- 01/1945: Joined Viet Minh Front against the French colonialists and Japanese fascists

- 05/1950: Joined Vietnam People's Army, fought in  Dien Bien Phu Campaign

- 1960-1965, 1967-1970: Studied chemistry and got science & technology doctorate degree in USSR.

- 1971- 2002: Director of the Military Chemical Institute, then Director General of Vietnam - Russia

Tropical Centre of Science and Technology.

- 2003-now: Retired, Vice-President, General Secretary of VAVA.

Second generation victim:
Nguyen Muoi

Date of birth: October 8, 1983
Address: Phu Vang district, Hue

Career and exposure

Nguyen Muoi was born about October 8, 1983 in the city of Hue. His father, Nguyen Dinh Thanh, and his mother, Le Thi Gam, married in 1969.

His father, Mr. Thanh was a farmer who served in the ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam, the U.S. backed government in southern Vietnam before 1975) during the war. From 1970 to 1975, he was a cook in an ARVN unit stationed in the Aluoi Valley, where drums of Agent Orange were stored and severely exposed to sprayings. During that time, he ate wild vegetables and drank stream water.

Due to his father's exposure to Agent Orange in Aluoi Valley, Muoi periodically experiences severe pain in his mid-section and back, making it extremely difficult for him to move. Sometimes the pain was severe. In 1999, he sought treatment but it did not alleviate the pain.

In July of 2003, Muoi was formally diagnosed with spina bifida. He had to abandon his education in the field of architecture and construction. He cannot work because of the pain associated with his conditions. Muoi has been relying on his father, Mr. Thanh, for financial support and care

Victim from Bien Hoa (southern Vietnam):
Nguyen Thi Hong

Date of birth: 1947
Address: Bien Hoa, Dong Nai province

Career and exposure

I n 1961, Mrs Hong joined the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF) and served in the Eastern Combat Zone of South Vietnam, also known as T1 or Combat Zone D, as a clerk tailor and medical care worker for the NLF Political Training School.

In 1964, while she was washing rice in the stream Agent Orange was sprayed on her. She tried to dive into the stream in the belief that water would wash away the chemicals that stuck to her body, but to no avail. She continued to consume contaminated food, wild grasses and water every day.

In 1968, Ms. Hong was sent to work at the NLF's provincial headquarters in Ba Ria, Long Khanh, as a medic. She got married and had her first miscarriage in 1969 about 4-5 months into her pregnancy. In 1970, her unit was ambushed and she lost her right hand. As a consequence, she had to work as an accountant. In 1976, 1979, and 1984, she gave birth prematurely to three under-weight children, one of whom had a cogenital heart defect. All of her children are very weak, hard to care for, and often sick.

In May 1975, Mrs. Hong moved to live in the City of Bien Hoa City and in 1990, she moved again to the Trung Dung area, close to Bien Hung Lake, where all the water came from the Agent Orange storage site of the former United States Air Force Base at Bien Hoa. Her health began to worsen and she became sicker, forcing her to retire early . After a medical checkup with ultrasound and blood tests, she was found to have cirrhosis, and needed long term treatment. in the hospital. .

In 1999, her health got worse. Her belly was swollen and hardened. She felt exhausted and fainted. The doctors in Cho Ray Hospital, Ho Chi Minh City, discovered that she had an enlarged spleen and hemopoesis disorder. Her treatment included several tests of her marrow and consequently she was found to have cancer of the left breast . In addition, she also has shortness of breath, high blood pressure, cerebral anaemia, breast cancer with bone metastasis, stomach aches, cirrhosis, gall-stones and bladder-stones, varicose limbs, limbskin ulcer, weak legs and limited range of movement.

Victim from Hai Phong:
Nguyen Van Quy

Date of birth: 1955
Address: Le Chan district, Hai Phong city

Career and exposure

From April 1972 to July 1972, Nguyen Van Quy served in the Vietnam People's Army as a repair man for communication lines along the Ho Chi Minh trail.

From July 1972 to September 1972, Nguyen Van Quy was stationed in Bo Ko. He was then transferred to Quang Ngai where he stayed from September 1972 to April 1973. From April 1973 until the end of. the war in 1975, he worked in Quang Nam, near the Ho Chi Minh trail. All of these provinces are in southern Vietnam. From 1972 through 1975, he regularly ate manioc, wild herbs and plants he found and drank water from streams in areas that had been spayed with Agent Orange.

During the entire period that he was stationed in southern Vietnam, Nguyen Van Quy had periodic headaches and exhaustion. His skin was often itchy and rashes broke out. The skin irritation disappeared after he left Quang Ngai Province in 1973, but the headache and exhaustion continued and worsened over time.

After the war, Nguyen Van Quy returned home in Hai Duong province, in north Vietnam, where he rejoined his family on their farm.

In 1983, Nguyen Van Quy got married, and his wife became pregnant. Later that year, Quy moved to Vung Tau, in southern Vietnam, where he worked as a welder. His pregnant wife remained with his family in Hai Duong. The pregnancy ended in a stillbirth. The fetus was deformed. Because of the stillbirth and the deformed fetus, Mr. Quy's wife filed for and obtained a divorce.

Mr. Quy continued to work in Vung Tau for approximately one year, but had to stop working because of worsening spells of weakness and exhaustion.

In 1986, Mr. Quy moved back to his family's home in Hai Duong Province, where he depended on his family for financial support because he was too weak to work.

In 1987, Mr. Quy was married again, to Ms. Vu Thi Loan. They moved to Hai Phong City, to live with his wife's family, on whom he was then dependent for financial support.

Mrs. Loan soon became pregnant and in 1988, gave birth to their son, Nguyen Quang Trung. Trung was born with spinal, limb and developmental disabilities. His feet are enlarged and deformed. He is unable to coordinate his legs and arms. He has a congenital defect of the spine, which makes it difficult to support his weight. He is developmentally disabled. Trung is unable to stand, walk, or use his hands; he is unable to care for himself, attend school or work.

Shortly after Trung's birth, in 1989 Mrs. Loan gave birth to a daughter, Nguyen Thi Thuy Nga, who was born developmentally disabled and was also born deaf and dumb. As a result, Nga cannot attend school or work and she is not self-sufficient.

On October 20, 2003, Mr. Quy had difficulty breathing and was taken by ambulance to a hospital in Hanoi for treatment. He was transferred to a more specialized hospital for cancer treatment in Hanoi, where he was diagnosed with stomach cancer, liver damage and with fluid in his lung.

Mr. Quy received treatment for cancer. He is now very weak and has difficulty breathing, and is often home-bound.

Both of Mr. Quy's children are unable to care for themselves and require constant attention from Mr. Quy, Mrs. Loan and their family.

Mr. Quy's illnesses and conditions and his children's conditions were caused by his exposure to dioxin through his ingestion of food and water drawn from areas sprayed with Agent Orange and his direct contact with the Agent Orange sprayed in South Vietnam

Post-war victim from Thua Thien-Hue:
Vo Thanh Hai

Date of birth: 1959
Address: Nam Dong District, Thua Thien-Hue

Career and exposure

Plaintiff Vo Thanh Hai is originally a resident of Hue city, central Vietnam. He currently resides in Nam Dong district with his wife, Nguyen Thi Hoa and their son, Vo Thanh Tuan Anh.

Mr. Hai moved to Nam Dong in 1973. In 1978, at the age of 19, he was employed in forestry work, in particular, the replanting of trees in areas of Nam Dong that had been defoliated by the U.S. army's Operations Trail Dust and Ranch Hand. Mr. Hai often worked outdoors in the fields and ate wild vegetables. Mr. Hai's forestry assignment ended in 1993 but he continued to live there, doing rice and vegetables cultivation.

In 1986, Mrs. Hoa, Mr. Hai's wife, became pregnant, but the pregnancy ended in a miscarriage. On May 28, 1987, Mrs. Hoa gave birth to Vo Thanh Tuan Anh.

In 2001, Tuan Anh began experiencing spells of fatigue and dizziness. In November 2001 Mr. Hai took his son to Hue Central Hospital to be examined. Tuan Anh was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, and was treated with surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

While at the hospital, the doctor noticed a lump on Mr. Hai's neck, and advised him to have it examined. As a result of the tests, Mr. Hai was diagnosed with Hodgkins Disease.

Both father and son experience chronic fatigue and have difficulty performing routine activities requiring physical exertion. Mrs. Hoa has to provide daily care for her husband and son.

Mr. Hai's and Tuan Anh's illnesses were caused by their exposure to Agent Orange and their ingestion of food and water contaminated by dioxin sprayed by the United States forces during the war.

Hoang Cong Thuy

Delegation interpreter. Secretary General of Vietnam-USA. Society, Vietnam.