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Representations and Reproductive Hazards of Agent Orange

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2021

Leslie J. Reagan
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United States Air Force planes fly across mountains of green forest; behind them, fine white streams of chemical spray fill the sky. The planes fly alone or in formation covering wide swaths of the entire landscape. These images of the herbicide spraying during the United States-Vietnam War are ubiquitous in media material about Agent Orange, the most heavily used of the fifteen herbicides sprayed during the war. This representation of the war does not include guns, grenades, tanks, bombs, or dead bodies. Instead, contemporary documentary filmmakers offer images of airplanes and chemical barrels to provide evidence of another weapon of war, pan dead and leafless forests in an otherwise lush landscape of green, and zero in on children’s deformed bodies to show the lasting environmental and health effects of Agent Orange. In this essay I share preliminary thoughts from my new project on Agent Orange and film in the United States and Vietnam. The bulk of social science writing on Agent Orange has focused on American veterans and their fight to secure benefits, while film scholars have analyzed the Vietnam War in Hollywood movies and television. I investigate documentary film, the transnational activism that generates these films, and the representations of gender, disabilities, bodies, history and culture within them. Here I offer a close reading of two turn-of-the-twenty-first-century documentaries about Agent Orange in Vietnam.

Type
Symposium
Information
Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , Spring 2011 , pp. 54 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Law, Medicine and Ethics 2011

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References

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Sakata, M., Agent Orange: A Personal Requiem (2007) [film]; Where War Has Passed (1998) [film], written by D. L. Nguyen, directed by M. L. Vu. I also refer to a third film about the war and the women of Vietnam that has a section on Agent Orange. As the Mirror Burns (1990) [film] Di Bretherton, writer/narrator/co-director and Cristina Pozzan, producer/director. All three are available at the Undergraduate Library, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and all quotations are from these prints. On the films' production and prizes, see Hirano, K., “Widow's Film Delves into impact of Agent Orange,” The Japan Times, December 27, 2008, available at <http://search.japantimes.co.jp> (last visited December 13, 2010); “Film Details: AFSC Video and Film Lending Library”, available at http://tools.afsc.org/bigcat/tpc.php?TID=183> (last visited December 13, 2010). (last visited December 13, 2010); “Film Details: AFSC Video and Film Lending Library”, available at http://tools.afsc.org/bigcat/tpc.php?TID=183> (last visited December 13, 2010).' href=https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=Sakata,+M.,+Agent+Orange:+A+Personal+Requiem+(2007)+[film];+Where+War+Has+Passed+(1998)+[film],+written+by+D.+L.+Nguyen,+directed+by+M.+L.+Vu.+I+also+refer+to+a+third+film+about+the+war+and+the+women+of+Vietnam+that+has+a+section+on+Agent+Orange.+As+the+Mirror+Burns+(1990)+[film]+Di+Bretherton,+writer/narrator/co-director+and+Cristina+Pozzan,+producer/director.+All+three+are+available+at+the+Undergraduate+Library,+University+of+Illinois,+Urbana-Champaign+and+all+quotations+are+from+these+prints.+On+the+films'+production+and+prizes,+see+Hirano,+K.,+“Widow's+Film+Delves+into+impact+of+Agent+Orange,”+The+Japan+Times,+December+27,+2008,+available+at++(last+visited+December+13,+2010);+“Film+Details:+AFSC+Video+and+Film+Lending+Library”,+available+at+http://tools.afsc.org/bigcat/tpc.php?TID=183>+(last+visited+December+13,+2010).>Google Scholar
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These are young women, with an average age of 24. The hospital has so few resources that it cannot provide chemotherapy for all of them. Bangkok is mentioned as a counter example–there, they see fifty cases each year. As the Mirror Burns, supra note 9.Google Scholar
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This is not to say that all parents accepted their “deformed” children or resisted institutionalization. Many parents institutionalized them if they could; others abandoned them to hospitals or orphanages. In Vietnam, too, children born with congenital deformities are left in hospitals, tended to, and educated there, as shown in Agent Orange: A Personal Requiem, supra note 9.Google Scholar
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I have seen this reaction with students in other classes when they watched a documentary that had a clear point of view. Perhaps they expect a PBS American Experience type of documentary that, although it has a perspective, appears to be objective and dispassionate.Google Scholar
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