Saigon, June 7, 2004

Dear Mr. Kenneth Herrmann,

My name is Phan Phuoc Trung and I am 55 years old.

My wife's name is To Thi Dieu and she is 50 years old.

I was very touched to read the appeal that you made in the newspaper. The article came to me like an angel's arrival to save the lives of millions of AO victims in my country.

We, the AO victims in Vietnam, really appreciate your concern for us. The war has been over for almost 30 years. The Americans have begun to forget about us while millions of the Vietnamese people are still living with its disastrous effects. It is a tragedy. There are millions of Vietnamese families who are living with persistent pain caused by the American troops during the war. There are manty families that are affected into the third generation. We still have no idea when AO will stop affecting the health and safety of my innocent people. It may affect the fourth and fifth generations. The list may be longer.

Dioxin is still existing in the soil we cultivate, the water we drink, and the food we eat.Thismeans that it is still existing within each Vietnamese citizen

The US government has admitted the effect of AO on the American troops who served in the Vietnam War. The Nam vets have been compensated. It is unjust with the AO victims.

All of the Vietnamese AO victims have been living in silence. They are lonely coping with their pains and losses. The company producing this deadly agent must be responsible for this. It is time for us to share with you our pains

Yes, I am going to share with you the story of my family. My wife and I were born and raised in Hue. We married and had five healthy and good-looking children before we moved to Ninh Son, Ninh Thuan Province in 1994. By the end of 1995, our daughter named Phan Thi My Lien was born. We were miserable to know that Lien had a cleft lip and that her head was flat. She is nine years old now, but she cannot walk, cannot speak, and cannot recognize anything. She weighs ten kilos (22 pounds). We were very nervous and were told that the place where we were living was heavily sprayed with AO during the American War. We immediately sold our house and moved to a different place. A couple of years ago, I came back to this place to visit my neighbors. I discovered that the family who had bought my house also gave birth to a disabled child. Their son is mentally retarded. I also learned that the midwife who helped with Lien's arrival also had two disabled children. Both of them had died. In addition to this, there are many disabled children in this area.

I just shared with you the story about my family. This is just one of millions of stories about AO victims in Vietnam. Please communicate to any people you know about how deadly this agent is.

Many thanks.

Phan Phuoc Trung

trans. Nguyen Thi My Hoa