Philip Jones Griffiths is a Welsh photographer whose book
Vietnam Inc. was published in 1971. We think it’s the best book there is about the Vietnam War. Recently, Griffiths released another book about Vietnam, titled
Agent Orange: “Collateral Damage” in Viet Nam. In it, he drew together all his formerly unpublished work documenting the effects of Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the US military during the Vietnam War. Griffith’s work shows us that all of the things we fear—boring stuff like bankruptcy, STDs, and being sad—are tiny pinpricks compared to the Armageddon that was brought down on the people of Vietnam.
Vice: What’s the story with Agent Orange?
Philip Jones Griffiths: The component of Agent Orange that kills, that produces deformed kids and illnesses, is called dioxin. It’s an amazingly powerful poison.
America dropped it on South Vietnam during the war. Today, they say, “Look, we didn’t drop it on Vietnam to produce deformed babies. We did it to clear the vegetation so we could see the enemy. If we knew how dangerous it was we wouldn’t have done it.” But of course they knew how dangerous it was.
Basically, they didn’t care if they killed trees, Vietnamese people, or both...
Yes, but their contempt for the Vietnamese was matched only by their contempt for the American soldier, who also got sprayed and died in large numbers, or who made it home and produced deformed children.
Did you hear about Agent Orange while you were still in Vietnam, or later?
There were rumors going around in 1970 and some photos had been published in one of Saigon’s main antigovernment newspapers. At the time the government dismissed the whole thing, saying it was a result of VD from prostitutes.
How did you find the victims?
I originally looked in Catholic orphanages, but I was forbidden entry into every orphanage or hospital where these children were kept. It seemed that the word had spread to keep the press out. It wasn’t until I returned after the war was over that I gained access to a children’s hospital in Saigon. The staff would actually phone me at my hotel whenever a baby had been born that survived and was recognizably human. Often they would only survive for a few hours, so I would get a call at my hotel in the middle of the night and rush over there. The photos of the mothers are as heartbreaking as the photos of the victims.
TO BE CONTINUED:
AGENT ORANGE’S KIDS | 1 | 2 |
