Between 1962 and 1971, U.S. forces sprayed 72 million liters of
herbicidal agents across rural Vietnam. The most notorious of these,
Agent Orange, decimated forests and exposed millions of Vietnamese—as
well as U.S. soldiers—to dioxin, a highly toxic compound linked to a
long list of illnesses.
Nearly a half-century later, dioxin "hot spots" still dot the
Vietnamese countryside. But direct contact is only the first domino in a
long line of continuing effects, said Ylan Vo, a master's candidate in
both architecture and landscape architecture. Trace amounts still
accumulate in food supplies. Deforested areas are susceptible to
erosion. Decisions about replanting often favor commercial monocultures
over diverse native species.
"As a landscape architect, I'm trained to think about how systems
interact," Vo said. "Topography shapes distribution, but so do water and
climate and the movements of animals and people. Agent Orange is an
environmental issue, a scientific issue, a medical issue, a community
development issue, a political issue...You really can't separate them."
Last summer, Vo traveled to the A Lưới Valley—near where her father
was raised, in the city of Huế—thanks to a prestigious Deborah J. Norden
grant from the Architectural League of New York.
Hoping to explore the continuing imprint of past violence, Vo
compared contemporary ground conditions to GIS mapping data,
declassified military maps, and other sources. The results could be
revealing. For example, dispersal patterns tended to track closely with
roads and supply routes along the valley floor. The worst hot spots
remain concentrated near former military installations, where chemicals
had been spilled, leaked, or bombed.
"Dioxin breaks down with sunlight, but once it gets into the soil,
it's no longer exposed to sunlight," she said. "It's a persistent
toxin." Both the human toll and environmental legacy "will continue for
generations."
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