Center for Asian American Media

At Tu Du Hospital in Saigon, babies in a special unit have enlarged heads or are missing limbs. Nguyen Thuy Linh, a lovely 12-year-old girl who was born without arms, writes with her feet. Thirty years after the end of the Vietnam War, she is among several million victims of Agent Orange. In THE LAST GHOST OF WAR, we meet victims who are plaintiffs in a class action suit against 32 U.S. chemical companies.

These Vietnamese victims are seeking compensation and justice. The question is were these dioxin-laden herbicides chemical weapons? And if so, who should be held accountable in the wake of what was arguably the largest chemical warfare operation in history?

A presentation of the Center for Asian American Media with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting; funded by a grant from the New Jersey Council for the Humanities and a sponsored program of New York Foundation for the Arts.

*** (3 Stars) Recommended. “… looks at the suffering that this toxic herbicide has caused amongst the Vietnamese people – both those with prolonged exposure to the chemical who later developed life-threatening diseases, and the many children born with severe deformities… The filmmaker’s sympathies clearly (and rightly) lie with the victims in this informative documentary on this poisonous legacy of the Vietnam War.”

- Video Librarian, 2007

"This film puts a human face on the cost of war and highlights its long reach into the future. It also raises fascinating issues of corporate responsibility, history, and international law that continue to be timely....The film would be a wonderful contribution to a class on law, ethics, or history, for high school on up."

- Tom Ginsburg, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, in "News and Reviews," Asian Educational Media Service

Recognition
Association for Asian Studies, 2007
Public screenings at several universities including Harvard, Princeton, Rutgers and Temple

Additional Resources
In the news, the arrival of the delegation from Vietnam... »
See the filmmaker's web site »
See News and Reviews, Spring 2008 for complete film review »

College/Institution

K-12/Public Library/Community Group