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Friday, April 28, 2000
By Reg Henry, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
HANOI -- One of the leading figures in the efforts to deal with the legacy of Agent Orange, the defoliant sprayed by U.S. planes during the Vietnam War, is a genial 72-year-old medical doctor and professor who spent much of that time dodging aerial bombardment.
Dr. Le Cao Dai is now executive director of the Agent Orange Victims Fund of the Vietnam Red Cross. Between 1966 and 1974, he was a surgeon in a North Vietnamese Army field hospital near Pleiku in the Central Highlands.
After one big campaign, his hospital unit treated as many as 1,800 wounded soldiers at seven hidden camps in the forest, he said in an interview earlier this week.
The operating rooms were dug out of the ground. A small raised roof was built above ground to allow in light and air. In a big air attack, which in the case of B-52s came without warning, the staff would seek shelter in a larger underground bunker.
The doctor betrays no bitterness today. The B-52s must have been terrifying, says a reporter, straining to comprehend the incomprehensible. "Oh sure," he says with a laugh.
In 1970, he was called to a meeting in Hanoi, which meant walking up the Ho Chi Minh Trail for two months before coming back the same long way. But, he said, he knew nothing about the effects of Agent Orange at that time.
It wasn't until after the war, when he could no longer be a surgeon because his eyesight had deteriorated, that he was asked to join a committee to study the problem. Today he is one of the foremost authorities in Vietnam, sought after internationally to deliver papers on the subject. He has been to the United States several times, most recently last fall.
There are two major needs in handling Agent Orange problems in Vietnam, Dai said.
"The first priority, I believe, is that there are places still contaminated, and this is affecting people locally." These are mostly around former U.S. air bases. "To clean up these places we need some high technology ....very expensive [technology]."
The other priority is to continue researching the problem, which has been known to cause miscarriages, stillborn babies, cancer and a host of other ailments, and to find ways to help those who suffer. Dai estimated that 1 million people have been affected.
Not all the news is bad. Dai said the effect of the defoliant has faded with the years. Overall, the Vietnamese ecosystem contains less dioxin than is found in industrialized countries. The problem is certain hot spots.
The need is urgent, he said. As well as cleaning up the sites, which also contain other pollutants, it may be necessary to relocate families.
His organization, the Agent Orange Victims Fund, was formed two years to try to raise money to help those victims, who are often "the poorest of the people."
Dai wishes the U.S. government would help. It has done "nothing to the present time," although the issue was raised with Defense Secretary William Cohen on his recent visit and the Vietnamese are waiting to see what will come of it.
Dr. Le Cao Dai is one of Vietnam's foremost authorities on Agent Orange. (Annie O'Neill, Post-Gazette)