Stand tall despite Agent Orange pain

Knowing our visit, even though being treated at the district hospital, Thuc came home to see us. Giao introduced: "This 100-million spacious new house of Thuc was built from public donation raised by the District Association together with the family’s money earned by afforestation and husbandry”.

Thuc was born in 1947 in Thanh Long commune. In 1969, he joined the army and in the same year he move to fight in B battlefield at the 28th Battalion of Kon Tum province, later under the 3rd Corps, or the Central Highlands Corps. During the period from 1969 to 1981, he fought and worked in units of Kon Tum province. In 1982, as his health declined, the unit sent him to the North for treatment and convalescence, and encouraged him to return to work when his health improved, but he insisted on demobilization. In May 1982, to his wish, he was discharged. In his luggage return home were a few sets of personal belongings, some quinine, and nostalgia for comrades.

After returning home, he got married with Mrs. Bui Thi Uoc who lives in the same town. The couple lived in a 3-room house made of bamboo… That was the time he experienced fully all the difficulties and hardships of a soldier returning from the war. After that, their three children were born, namely: Bui Van Thanh (1983), Bui Thi Long (1985), Bui Van Xuyen (1988). All the three children were thin, shrunken, and scrawny, with big heads and slanted eyes. Looking at the children, he felt painful: “Members of both my wife’s family and mine are healthy, then why my children look like this?”

Later, his wife gave birth to 4 more times, but his children were all deformed and died young... His family and clan encouraged him and his wife to have more children in the hope that they maybe have a healthy one. But that luck did not come to Thuc and his wife. He and his wife ran back and forth to borrow money to have their children treated, but the doctors all concluded: their children suffered from the sequelae of Agent Orange/dioxin...

From 1969 to 1975, he fought along Highway 14, north of Kon Tum town. Later, when he became a victim of Agent Orange, he learned that the area where he operated was sprayed with toxic chemicals containing dioxin by the US. Many nights, lying with his children in his arms, he recalled the years of fighting in Kon Tum, when looked up at the sky and saw trails of smog spewing from American planes, the next day, trees in the forest turned yellow and died. The bamboo shoots that had just sprouted from the ground drooped and rotted. The bird on the branch with its wings disintegrated, the weasels and the foxes huddled in the leek tree also fell dead. Cooks of the unit went down to the stream to get water and saw dead fish floating up. Troops in his unit, inhaling the smoke sprayed by enemy aircraft, coughed, vomited blood, blurred their eyes... At that time, our soldiers did not know anything about toxic chemicals carrying deadly dioxins. They even caught the deadly fish for food... Only later, when the war ended for 15 years (1990), the soldiers who returned like Thuc learned that they and their children were deformed and suffered abnormal disability due to the consequence of Agent Orange/dioxin that the US military used during the war in Vietnam.

In the years of the subsidy period, his family underwent a lot of difficulties. In early 1990, the State had a policy for bidding land from forestry farms for production; he decided to rent 10.8 hectares of land from Thach Thanh district forestry enterprise for afforestation. At first, when the weather was dry, and no experience in the trees, the plants died, along with the "forest thieves" destroying the forest, he was depressed and planned to give up the trees, leave the forest, and go to the South to live, but changed his mind after thinking about his children. After that, under the guidance of the District Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, he gained more experience in taking good care of 10.8 hectares of forest. Under the trees, he also raised poultry, cattle, and bee for honey. He also has an additional 1 hectare of forest land for planting acacia and grass to raise cows. Every day, from dawn to dusk, he and his wife travel 5km to work in the wood. Looking at the acacia forest which is ready for harvest, he feels very joyful. His hard work pays beyond his expectations.

Although the sequelae of Agent Orange often torment him, his faith always remains in him. And he wins. Rising from poverty, Thuc clung to his homeland to live. Today, afforestation brings him an annual income of 50 to 79 million excluding expenses. That is a big amount of money to him. He uses the income to invest in afforestation, livestock and raise his 5 "Agent Orange" children.

Looking at his small body in the faded military uniform and the traditional rubber sandals of the liberation soldiers in the past, we were admired by his will even more. He showed us his family cemetery. There, there are graves of his parents and four children with Agent Orange sequelae who left him and his wife early. He said that his wife gave birth 9 times, only 5 children are still alive, but all are deformed, 4 children died because of Agent Orange transmitted from him. His family carries the pain of the world, the pain of more than 3 million Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange…

In the gratitude house of Mr. and Mrs. Bui Thiet Thuc, there were many certificates of merit awarded by the Central Committee of the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange, the Chairman of the People's Committee of Thanh Hoa Province, the Provincial Association for Victims of Agent Orange, and other industries, sectors and levels in recognition of his achievements. Despite the pain of “Agent Orange”, he stays firm in his homeland, clinging to the forest to survive and thrive. He truly deserves to be an example of overcoming difficulties, representing for over 16,000 victims of Agent Orange in Thanh Hoa province.