The Central Highlands of Vietnam is well known to be heavily affected by the Vietnam War with United States between 1962 and 1971. Khanh Hoa Province was one of the severely affected area.
I call it "severe", because it's not a matter caused by knives, guns, or
even bombs. It's an effect that still lasts until 40 years later. It's a
cause by "Agent Orange", a chemical sprayed by the United States military.
This is a picture I took with my cellphone on our way to Nha Trang. The land is barren. Nothing can grow on it as a result of the Agent Orange Spray 40 years ago!
I quote from Wikipedia:
The goal was to defoliate rural/forested land, depriving guerrillas of
food and cover and clearing in sensitive areas such as around base
perimeters.[28] The program was also a part of a general policy of forced draft urbanization,
which aimed to destroy the ability of peasants to support themselves in
the countryside, forcing them to flee to the U.S. dominated cities,
depriving the guerrillas of their rural support base.
Tin, our tour guide, explained that this area was a thick forest. It was.
Among all the plants, only these trees that can grow on this Agent-Orange-destroyed-land But even so, the trees can't grow normally. See that?
Here is a closer look. What a cruel thing Agent Orange had done on nature. Never try to wonder how many species have been put to an end.
Mr. Vu (in orange) and Tin (in blue) made a stop for us to have a closer look.
The soil, if you can call it so, beneath my feet still obviously contained of flakes of a huge explosion. I just couldn't believe it was something that happened 40 y-e-a-r-s ago.
However, if you look up in Wikipedia, the damage from Agent Orange was far more worse on human. There are photos that so how bizarre it is. In words, let me quote again:
Children in the areas where Agent Orange was used have been affected and
have multiple health problems, including cleft palate, mental
disabilities, hernias, and extra fingers and toes.[36] In the 1970s, high levels of dioxin were found in the breast milk of South Vietnamese women.
This is a former USMC Tower. USMC = United States Marine Corps. Tin said the letters "USMC" is written on the tower. But I can't find which one it is.
Ah... anyway, may war not be written nowhere on history.
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