The Lethal Remnants of Vietnam’s War: 50 Years On
Wednesday marks the 50th anniversary of the ‘Fall of Saigon’, which brought an end to the Vietnam War. The conflict, which lasted from 1955 to 1975, left a trail of destruction and devastation that still affects the country today. ITV News Asia Correspondent Debi Edward reports from Vietnam on the deadly legacy of that conflict.
In a week that marks fifty years since the end of the war in Vietnam – the so-called ‘Fall of Saigon’ – a de-mining team was searching for the lethal remnants of that conflict, which are still claiming lives all these years later. The team was working in Quang Tri province in southern Vietnam, the most bombed place on earth. According to ITV News, only shrapnel was recovered on the morning they were invited to film, but in that one area of forest, they have found more than two hundred unexploded bombs in the last six months.
The de-mining team was from Peace Trees, one of several American-funded organisations working to make the land safe again, and repair relations between Vietnam and the United States. However, that dual mission has been threatened by Donald Trump’s decision to shutter USAID (United States Agency for International Development). A temporary ‘Stop-Work Order’ was issued at the end of January, creating fear and uncertainty. Although operations have resumed, the organisation has had to scale back and focus on a smaller area, while they wait to find out about future funding.
The director of Peace Trees in Vietnam, Pham Thi Hoang Ha, told ITV News that the stop work order caused alarm in the organisation. In the three-week period they had to cease working, they were still receiving calls from people who had found unexploded ordnances. They could only tell them to avoid the area and not touch what they had discovered. Peace Trees and several other de-mining charities in the region act as an additional emergency service, providing a phone number people can call when they find a remnant of the war.
The Vietnam War also saw the world’s biggest use of chemicals in warfare, including the incendiary substance, napalm. In 1972, ITV News captured the notorious images of a young girl, naked, her clothes burned from her body, after napalm was dropped on her town Trang Bang. The footage and a photograph of Phan Thi Kim Phuc, who became known as ‘napalm girl’, was shown around the world, causing outrage and fuelling stronger anti-war sentiment in the United States.
The use of napalm and agent orange, a pernicious herbicide also used to strip the land, have had the gravest of long-term effects. ITV News visited a support centre in the Cam Lo ward of Quang Tri, where they met children born with physical and learning disabilities, blamed on contamination in the food and water supplies. The centre relies on funds from an American NGO, whose budget has been slashed by the State Department and USAID cuts.
Programs supported by the US State department have been central to the reconciliation between Vietnam and the United States. Those hard-won diplomatic gains have grown in strategic importance as the US has looked for support in its efforts to counter China. On Wednesday, the military will parade through Ho Chi Minh City, as Saigon is now officially known, to mark the day it fell to the North Vietnamese. Rehearsals for ‘Reunification Day’, as it’s called in Vietnam, have drawn huge crowds.
According to Nhung, a woman who met ITV News, her husband was killed when he accidentally triggered an unexploded cluster bomb in their front garden. The incident has left her and her daughter all alone and facing more hardship in a life that had been difficult, until she met and married her husband. Nhung often looks at her wedding album to bring her some comfort, it contains the only photos she has of them together.
In recent years, extreme weather has exposed just how bombed the nation was and laid bare the level of threat that remains in the land. Massive floods in 2020 caused landslides that churned up some massive munitions. Quang Tri’s position, on what was the border between former North and South Vietnam, made it a major battleground during the war and one of the worst affected areas.
As the country marks 50 years since the end of the war, the lethal remnants of that conflict still pose a significant threat to the people of Vietnam. The efforts of de-mining teams and support centres continue to make a difference, but more needs to be done to address the ongoing impact of the war. The UK and international community must continue to support the efforts of organisations like Peace Trees, to help make Vietnam a safer place for its people.
Sources: ITV News.
