Philip Jones Griffiths' haunting images will sear a space in that part of your memory bank reserved for nightmares and denial. They are powerful and gruesome reminders of what the United States did to Vietnamese citizens and its own soldiers for a war that has become a symbol of arrogance, ignorance and failure. They capture the long-term consequences of chemical warfare; the herbicide known as Agent Orange has bequeathed a legacy of deformed and scarred children and fetuses.
The massive spraying of this toxic defoliant over large swaths of southern Vietnam was aimed at exposing communist guerrillas to the firepower of the U.S. military and destroying food crops, but now is best known for its deadly side effects. The dioxin in Agent Orange is a weapon of mass destruction, a ticking genetic time bomb that has seeped into those who thought they survived the war. The casualties of war are thus still being counted almost three decades after the U.S. surrender and almost all await some form of humanitarian assistance.
In February 2004, Vietnamese victims of this eco-cide sued for compensation, the first Agent Orange claim filed in Vietnam. After looking at these images taken by Griffiths over the past two decades, one can scarcely believe that it took so long for someone to demand accountability. Chemical firms in the U.S. paid out $180 million in compensation to families of affected veterans although admitting no legal liability. The Department of Veterans Affairs confirms that liver cancer is one of the effects of Agent Orange, part of the deadly progression of dioxin.