April 30 marked 50 years since the end of the American War in Vietnam, which killed an estimated 3.3 million Vietnamese people, hundreds of thousands of Cambodians, tens of thousands of Laotians and more than 58,000 U.S. service members.

But for many Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian people; Vietnamese Americans; and U.S. Vietnam veterans and their descendants, the impacts of the war never ended.

They continue to suffer the devastating consequences of Agent Orange, an herbicide mixture used by the U.S. military that contained dioxin, the deadliest chemical known to humankind.

The United States used Agent Orange as a weapon of war. From 1961-1971, the U.S. military sprayed toxins that contained large quantities of dioxin in order to destroy food supplies and improve visibility for the U.S. military by killing broad swathes of vegetation throughout southern Vietnam.

As a result, many people have been born with congenital anomalies — disabling changes in the formation of the spinal cord, limbs, heart, palate and more. This remains the largest deployment of herbicidal warfare in history.