Transcript for Vietnam: War's Lasting Legacy

WITH FAREED ZAKARIA

A lingering battle over the legacy of the Vietnam War will soon find its way to a New York courtroom.

Later this month a group of Vietnamese citizens

will ask a federal appeals court to hold some U.S. chemical companies liable for Agent Orange,

a defoliant used by the U.S. military in Vietnam.

The suit was dismissed two years ago in a lower court on grounds that it had no basis in U.S. or international law.

Agent Orange has been blamed for a range of health issues including birth defects,

but rigorous scientific study has been complicated by some very political tensions.

Reporter Christie Aschwanden and filmmaker George Lerner recently traveled to Vietnam

on behalf of the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and filed this clip.

[♪dan bau music playing♪]

"Agent Orange: Vietnam's Lasting Legacy"

Reporter, Christie Aschwanden Filmmaker, George Lerner

From 1961-1971, the U.S. military sprayed some 19.5 million gallons of Agent Orange over Vietnam

Agent Orange, a herbicide, was meant to destroy the vegetation that sheltered Viet Cong guerrillas from U.S. forces

Agent Orange contained the toxic chemical Dioxin

The impact of that Dioxin is still being felt in Vietnam

Nguyen Thanh Son, Vietnamese Army Veteran, Hanoi

[Sounds of camera clicking]

When the American airplanes

sprayed chemicals on the battlefield

I breathed it in

My comrades and I felt dizzy

We felt a burning in our throats

blood came from our mouth and nose

The chemicals seeped into the ground

and went into the water

and we drank that water

We breathed the chemicals in the air

My daughter was born in 1975

Her name is Nguyen Thi Phuong Thuy

Since she was born

she hasn't been able to see

hasn't spoken a word

hasn't sat up

hasn't taken anything in her hand

She is still like a three old child

My son is Nguyen Thanh Tung

born in 1979

He is blind in both eyes

but he studies by braille

He graduated university

with two degrees

One in music composition

the other in traditional music

with a specialization

in the single stringed instrument

known as the dan bau.

[♪Sound of son playing the dan bau♪]

Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange/Dioxin

Dr. Nguyen Trong Nhan, Fmr. Minister of Health

The victims of Agent Orange

have the hardest lives

and the worst health problems

like cancer and infertility.

The studies show that the rate

of sickness and deformed children

is much higher in communities

affected by Agent Orange.

[Sounds of traffic and car horns]

The National Institutes of Health agreed to fund a study into the link between birth defects and Agent Orange in Vietnam

The study was cancelled in 2005 after officials from Vietnam and the United States failed to agree on scientific protocols

>>This is a political issue, all of the scientific issues are magnified tenfold

because of the sensitivities around us, perhaps the very scientific -- maticulous scientific concerns -- >>

Dr. Mark Rapoport, Pediatrician living in Hanoi

Rapport was to be part of NIH study

<

On the one hand -- on the other hand -- I think a high level of suspicion on the part of a number of people

within the Vietnamese government -- meant that every time one side changed

the other side had to study it again, to try to understand why there was a change --

was there more to change than met the eye, were they in some way being manipulated.

And the net result of that was, despite a very long time working at it, no agreement.>>

My name is Dang Hong Nhut

I am director of the

Society for the Support of Vietnamese

Handicapped and Orphans

During the war I was living

In the region of Cu Chi (near Saigon)

One day the American planes

sprayed chemicals

I didn't know about Agent Orange.

When we heard the plane coming

we were afraid they would bomb

so we hid,

and when the plane was gone,

we came out from the bunker.

I could see the whole sky was foggy.

A white powder was on the leaves.

There was a smell

that was so irritating

that I had to cover

my nose with a towel.

When the war ended

I wanted to have children.

But everytime we tried, I had a miscarriage.

In 1977, I was six months pregnant

when the fetus died in utero.

When it was removed,

we found out it was deformed.

If the baby had survived,

she would have suffered a lot more.

In 2005, the Tu Du Maternity hospital

removed some of my fat tissue

to be tested abroad.

They informed me that

dioxin was still in my body.

[Sounds of chairs moving across floor]

Nhut was among the Vietnamese plantiffs who filed suit against U.S. chemical companies that produced Agent Orange

In 2005 a U.S. federal court judge dismissed the case. A U.S. Appeals court in New York will hear an appeal in June 2007.

It doesn't matter if the companies

won't admit their crimes.

What really counts is that

people see that a crime took place.

[♪Sound of dan bau playing♪]

I hope that this lawsuit,

whether we win or lose,

will awaken the humanity in us.

[♪Jazzy-pop music playing♪] WITH FAREED ZAKARIA

MONEY TRAIN Vietnam plans to build a high-speed railroad between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City

Source: The International Herald Tribune

The 1,100 mile railway will cut travel time from 30 hours to less than 10, and cost $33 billion dollars

70 percent of project's cost will come from the Vietnamese government, mainly in the form of Japanese development assistance

WITH FAREED ZAKARIA

Producer/Director/Editor: George Lerner

Reporter: Chrisite Aschwanden

Produced by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting

"Foreign Exchange with Fareed Zakaria" is produced by Azimuth Media

For more information about this reporting project visit: www.pulitzercenter.org