ABOUT AGENT ORANGE

During the Vietnam War, the United States used Agent Orange to kill jungle foliage that served as cover for Viet Cong forces. American pilots sprayed Agent Orange from the air while ground troops applied the defoliant from backpack sprayers. From 1962 to 1971, nearly 12 million gallons of Agent Orange doused the Vietnamese countryside. By war’s end, Agent Orange and related herbicides destroyed 4.5 million acres of forest and 585,000 acres of cultivated land.

The manufacture of Agent Orange produces dioxin, one of the most toxic chemicals known to humankind. Monsanto produced the majority of Agent Orange, which was also manufactured by Dow Chemical, Diamond Shamrock, Hercules, and Uniroyal, among others. Years and even decades after serving in areas sprayed with Agent Orange, American veterans began showing high rates of disease.

EFFECTS ON THE VIETNAMESE

The effects of the war on the Vietnamese people have been devastating. Children in families affected by Agent Orange suffer skin rashes, severe personality disorders, memory loss, enlarged head, organ and metabolic dysfunction, missing or abnormal reproductive organs, miscarriages, cancers, numbness, hearing loss, deaths, and birth defects. At the Hong Ngoc Humanity Center, where disabled children are trained for jobs, staff report that 35,000 disabled children are born every year in Vietnam.

A PERMANENT MARK IN VIETNAM

In October 2008, the crew of A Permanent Mark and our main American interview subjects traveled to Vietnam. The journey was long, there were challenges and surprises, and my expectations for filming were exceeded in every way. We touched down in Ho Chi Minh City, visited the Mekong Delta, flew to the Central Highlands city of Pleiku, flew on to DaNang, drove to the ancient city of Hoi An and then to Quang Ngai City, wove our way into the mountains of Dong Ha (where my stepfather Bob served), and at last flew to Hanoi. Along the way, we interviewed so many Vietnamese experts on Agent Orange, met Vietnamese veterans affected by the herbicide, played with children and met their families, and came to love Vietnam.

This beautiful country bears few obvious scars from the war or from the spraying of Agent Orange from 1962 to 1970. Hotspots remain, but for the most part the jungles, forests, and fields have recovered. People like Mr. Tiger and his son, whom we interviewed in the Mekong Delta, have created nurseries growing plants and trees to help the local environment recover and thrive. It's the people of Vietnam who bear the scars of Agent Orange. We saw evidence of cancer, birth defects, and neurological disorders that are suspicious and may have their origin in dioxin contamination.

One of the highlights of the trip was working with the East Meets West Foundation staff in Quang Ngai City. East Meets West is based in Oakland, CA, my home, but their core work is in Vietnam. East Meets West arranged for me to meet two families and their daughters, both affected by cerebral palsy caused by dioxin exposure. We interviewed the families and the caretakers from East Meets West and the local village who support the families. I brought veteran Ron Worstell on one of these visits, and the footage of him interacting with the mother and father, giving them advice based on his own experience as the father of a daughter with a birth defect caused by his own exposure to Agent Orange, was electrifying!

Special thanks are due to those who are the featured subjects of the film, namely veterans Ron Worstell and Bob Reiter, as well as my mother, Janet Macher. My mom was traveling outside the U.S. for the first time in her life. While the trip was challenging, she was a trooper. Not only did she help herself heal, conducting a ceremony for my stepfather Bob in Dong Ha, she also helped the other veterans on the trip to heal. And that is absolutely priceless.