It Wasn't Life, It Was Hell: Aftermath of Using Agent Orange in Vietnam

The chemical was sprayed over much of Vietnam from August 10, 1961 to 1971. It is estimated that approximately 4.8 million Vietnamese were exposed to Agent Orange, and its effects continue to be felt today. The use of Agent Orange remains controversial and is considered one of the most tragic legacies of the Vietnam War.

Take a look at the consequences of the US' use of Agent Orange in Vietnam in Sputnik's gallery:

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A Fairchild C-123 Provider aircraft spraying defoliant in South Vietnam in 1962.

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Twelve-year-old Pham Quoc Huy is comforted by his mother on a bamboo cot in their home near his village of Dong Son, in the central highlands of Vietnam. Pham is suffering from what his parents say are the effects of the jungle defoliant Agent Orange, used heavily in the region by the US armed forces during the Vietnam War.

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Former North Vietnamese platoon commander Nguyen Van Quy, 52, points at the Kontum area of central Vietnam on a map showing in red where US wartime forces sprayed the toxic defoliant Agent Orange. When Nguyen Van Quy's platoon fought in the Vietnam War battlefields of Kontum in 1972, his soldiers moved through landscapes where the US defoliant Agent Orange had stripped bare the jungle.

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Sculptural works by local students representing disabled children victims of the defoliant "Agent Orange" used by US army during the Vietnam War are on display in a street of Ho Chi Minh City as part of a national campaign aimed at supporting the Vietnam War's victims of the defoliant Agent Orange.

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Nguyen Van Quy, 49, weeps while sitting with his son Nguyen Quang Trung, 17, at his house in Hai Phong, Vietnam on July 2004. Quy believes his children's birth defects were caused by Agent Orange that he was exposed to during the Vietnam War.

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Leaking Agent Orange barrels at Johnston Atoll circa 1973.

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Nguyen Thi Van Long, 19, left, from Nam Dinh province makes paper flowers with her classmates at the Vietnam Friendship Village for children and veterans suffering the effects of Agent Orange on the outskirts of Hanoi, Vietnam.

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Maps of the area contaminated with dioxin around Danang airport are displayed during a ceremony marking the start of a project to clean up dioxin left over from the Vietnam War, at a former US military base in Danang, Vietnam.

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A Vietnamese Airforce soldier sits guarding the entrance to a dioxin-contaminated area at Danang airport, a former US airbase.

It Wasn't Life, It Was Hell: Aftermath of Agent Orange in Vietnam