Main content

Agent Orange: A Vietnamese grandmother's last battle

Grandmother Tran To Nga was sprayed with Agent Orange during the Vietnam war. She wants recognition of the health problems she and subsequent generations have suffered.

When Tran To Nga was growing up in Vietnam during the 1950s, she had a close relationship with her mother - an important figure in the resistance movement against the regime of South Vietnam. During the Vietnam war, mother and daughter both fought for the resistance in the depths of the jungle. It was at this time that Nga was sprayed with Agent Orange - a toxic defoliant used by the US military to strip away the leafy canopy of the trees and expose their enemies hiding beneath it. Two years later, her first daughter was born with severe health issues and died, and Nga is battling serious illnesses herself, which she believes are a result of her contact with Agent Orange. She tells Emily Webb about her fight to get compensation for the survivors of Agent Orange, and about her decades-long search for her mother who disappeared in 1966. Nga's story is featured in a documentary called The People vs Agent Orange.

A longer version of this interview was first broadcast on 12th October 2021.

Presenter: Emily Webb
Producer: June Christie

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707

(Photo: Tran To Nga. Credit: Thomas Samson/AFP via Getty Images)

Available now

27 minutes

Last on

Mon 27 Nov 2023 03:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 25 Nov 2023 05:32GMT
  • Sat 25 Nov 2023 11:32GMT
  • Sat 25 Nov 2023 19:32GMT
  • Sun 26 Nov 2023 00:32GMT
  • Sun 26 Nov 2023 09:32GMT
  • Sun 26 Nov 2023 22:32GMT
  • Mon 27 Nov 2023 03:32GMT

Contact Outlook

Contact Outlook

Info on how we might use your contribution on air

Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Podcast: Lives Less Ordinary

Step into someone else’s life and expect the unexpected