July 21^st 2004

Dear Prof. Kenneth Herrmann,

With reference to your article titled "Vietnamese AO victims need to say" in Labour newspaper, I write this letter to share our situation with you and your program.

In the war from 1964 to 1975, my husband was a driver in the army. He was stationed at A Sau, A Luoi.

We had had two normal children (one son, one daughter) before he joined in the South battlefield. However, after coming back from the war we had one more child in 1980. Unfortunately, she was abnormal. She's only 13 kilos weight, keeps crying days and nights. I went to have her cured, but it was useless because the doctors all said that she was born mentally retarded. She was blind, paralyzed. She realized nothing about the world around her. I was so sad to know that dioxin from her father's body had passed to hers causing her diseases.

Now she is 25 years old, but she is only a child. She knows nothing except crying. I have to help her with everything in her daily activities. My family, therefore, meets with too many difficulties.

As far as I am concerned, you and the "SUNY Brockport Vietnam" program want to aid AO victims. I write this letter with the hope that you will help us to partly compensate for the great losses that were caused by American troops in the war.

Finally, I wish you and your colleagues health and success.

Many thanks!

Nguyen Thi Cam Bao
102 D4 Dich Vong Cau Giay
Ha Noi

trans. Nguyen Thi My Hoa