Trailer is Up for Inside This Peace Documentary on Agent Orange Victim

Thoa Nguyen, the subject of “Inside This Peace” (9669 Films)

A trailer is now up for Inside This Peace, a documentary about an Agent Orange victim that I wrote about last month.

Inside This Peace Exposes an Agent Orange Victim’s Moving Story

Here is the trailer:


Orange County filmmaker Lina Linh Nga’s sobering Inside This Peace tells the story of a childhood friend in Vietnam. Thoa Nguyen was born in 1985 with lumps, black patches and prickly hairs all over her, and her family attributes her condition to her father’s exposure to Agent Orange, an herbicide the U.S. government sprayed across Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to kill trees and crops that provided forest cover and food sources to Viet Cong soldiers during the Vietnam War.

An unintended consequence was that 4 million Vietnamese people were exposed to a chemical no one fully understood at the time. We understand now. Agent Orange exposure has been linked to rashes, cancer, birth defects, and severe psychological and neurological problems not only among the Vietnamese, but also U.S. servicemen and the offspring of both.

One ailment linked to Agent Orange exposure is chloracne, a skin condition that produces acne-like eruptions of cysts, pustules and blackheads, just like what you now find all over Thoa.

6 Replies to “Trailer is Up for Inside This Peace Documentary on Agent Orange Victim”

  1. Touching story and brave filmmaker..I was born in 1995, and my dad was a veteran of the Vietnam war and I have several genetic chronic illnesses. One of which is ehlers danlos syndrome, which is usually hereditary but we couldn’t find much of a link in his family or my mom’s family. A lot of sufferers of Ehlers Danlos are also children of Vietnam vets, and there’s a theory it could be linked to agent orange exposure. This documentary was really informative& interesting, but most of all, it was incredibly sad. My dad told me a lot of stories about his experiences before he died, and they probably barely scratched the surface of the pain and devastation of this war. .

  2. My dad was in the most highly concentrated area affected by agent Orange. I was born in 75 and watched my dad die from cancer in 08 due to agent Orange. I can not find a Dr that does not dismiss my rationaleof my health issues which are numerous. Hashimotos, degenetative disc and joint disease, scoriatic arthritis, skin lesions etc. My quality of life really stinks non existent. Who listens who helps?

  3. My dad died in 2014 from metastatic lung cancer due to his AO exposure in Vietnam, and it was written on his death certificate by the VA. I wrote a memoir about my rare type of breast cancer, diagnosed at age 31, paralleling my dad and mom’s (my mom is Vietnamese) wartime trauma. My book is called What Doesn’t Kill Us. There is a community of children of Vietnam War vets who are ill from our father’s AO exposure. Find us–Children of Vietnam Vets Health Alliance (COVVHA).

  4. In our world, audiences are not simply saturated but hyper-saturated with images of war. As an unfortunate result of the media’s obsession to showcase images of war, the public is often numb to the grave realities of death and destruction upon human health and environment suffering during and after war. Overexposure to these images and illustrations during war has reduced the effectivity of survivors’ personal testimonies about the consequences following war. For many of us the Vietnam War was experienced from a distance, we cannot understand, we cannot imagine the infliction of pain and damage upon human’s health and environment. Therefore, one must accept the testimonies from survivors and uphold these messages as the best means for reflection and rational for future military endeavors. When trying to understand the affects of Agent Orange we must listen to those closest to the experience, the survivors themselves. Those closest to the War’s aftermath have a voice, and it is the government’s obligation to insure that the survivors’ voices are heard. In my opinion, both the American and Vietnamese government has a role in preserving the voice of the Vietnamese who have had generations suffer from the destruction of Agent Orange. This is especially true for those children who were born disabled due to the toxins of Agent Orange used during the Vietnam War. Who will look after them when their parents are deceased, who will represent their voices?
    Kayla Pallas

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