Current Release: September 11th, 2007 | Vol. XXIV Iss. 10

Photo by Dr Emmanuel

Vietnam beautiful but still recovering

By Lauren Perry

For two weeks, philosophy professor Steven Emmanuel explored the war-torn country of Vietnam, armed with a camera, cigarettes and a little bit of French:

“When people discover that I visited Vietnam they often say, ‘Oh, I hear it’s such a beautiful country.’ It is beautiful. But its beauty is also mixed with sorrow.”

Vietnam is not a priority in the minds of most Americans, except in comparison to the Iraq War. Realities there such as excessive birth defects, diseases and cancers in children are not common knowledge. Dioxin, the poison inside Agent Orange, is still poisoning their water and soil.

“It’s very difficult to get information from outside Vietnam,” explains Emmanuel. “You need to get into the country.”

And that’s exactly what he did.

Landing first in Hanoi, the capital city, he spent his initial week at the Office of Genetic Counseling and Disabled Children (OGCDC.) Emmanuel met Dr. Nhan, whom he had contacted by e-mail before leaving. Nhan was the only person to reply to Emmanuel’s e-mails sent to different people around the country in hopes of finding out some information before he left. To learn anything, he had to venture out and talk to people.

“I was a little nervous,” he said. “It’s very uncomfortable going around and asking questions like that.

Especially with a camera,” he added with a laugh.

But Emmanuel soon stumbled upon someone willing to help him. American veteran Ted Engelmann had returned to Vietnam to see and photograph the area at which he had been stationed “as a way of closing a chapter.” He is one of many American veterans who return to the country to visit war sites and volunteer help for victims of dioxin poisoning.

Engelmann set up a meeting for Emmanuel with Dr. Suel Jones, one of the directors of a humanitarian establishment called Friendship Village.

“If he likes you and trusts you,” said Engelmann,” he might take you out there.”

It took two meetings with Jones, but Emmanuel finally secured a motorcycle, the common form of transportation.

Though a non-smoker, he was careful to bring four boxes of cigarettes with him.

Friendship Village, located six miles outside Hanoi, opened in 1998. The volunteers there provide physical therapy for 250 Agent Orange victims – all children. They also care for 100 Vietnamese veterans with war-related illnesses.

One of the many projects they have is clearing active land mines from the countryside.

“Kids get blown up every year,” Emmanuel explained.

However, the children at Friendship Village met him with optimism. They smiled eagerly and help up the peace sign to Emmanuel’s camera.

One 17-year old girl with spina bifidia is hoping for a scholarship to the University of Hanoi. She studies English at the village.

Spina bifidia is a disease that splits the bones of the spine. In the United States, it is directly linked with dioxin poisoning.

When Emmanuel talked with the veterans of the war, he offered them the cigarettes he carried in exchange for stories.

One man who approached him needed no trade, however. He sat down next to Emmanuel and told him that during the war, he single-handedly captured 15 American soldiers. He promised his prisoners that if they did not struggle or try to escape, he would not shoot them. The soldiers made no effort to do so, and he kept his promise.

His story told, the man got up and left.

In the final week of his trip, Emmanuel took a series of boats down the Red River, which is still poisoned with dioxin.

Upon reaching Saigon, Emmanuel visited the War Remnants Museum, where the Vietnamese people “tell their side of the story.”

The area immediately around the museum shows displays of jets, tanks and other weapons of war, with details of their destructive capabilities.

And inside the museum are photographs. Most of them are black and white. One of the most disturbing images Emmanuel saw was a picture of the dead bodies of children stacked neatly in rows.

“The peacefulness of their expressions seemed as though they were merely sleeping,” he said. “It has a deeply unsettling effect on the viewer.”

There is one display that “makes most people leave the room,” Emmanuel said.

This is the section devoted to Agent Orange. Among the photographs, the room holds two small jars, each with a human fetus inside disfigured by dioxin.

Vietnamese children often take field trips to the museum.

There are pictures of Emmanuel’s trip on his website at facultystaff.vwc.edu/~semmanuel/site/home.html

And during the school year, he and Dr. Stuart Minnis of the Communications department will be organizing a second trip as a class offered to students.

The three-week course will include two weeks in Vietnam. Five to eight students will be going. About half of them will work on a humanitarian service project through the OGCDC, while the rest will be making a documentary about the trip. Students interested in the documentary should take Dr. Minnis’ class in the spring.

This is one step in the direction of helping the country, but there is still a long way to go. Many people believe that this humanitarian help is helping the enemy.

“We are very far from coming to terms with what we did there,” Emmanuel said.