Vietnamese victims of Agent Orange appeared in a New York courtroom on Monday to argue that U.S. chemical companies should be held accountable for manufacturing the toxin. One of the plaintiffs, Nguyen Van Quy, said he has suffered from cancer, and two of his children had birth defects.

Nguyen Van Quy: “I am here as a living evidence to tell the people in the court that dioxin really has a negative impact on human beings as well as the environment.”

U.S. warplanes dumped about 18 million gallons of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. Constantine Kokkoris is one of the attorneys representing the Vietnamese plaintiffs.

Constantine Kokkoris: “It poisoned an entire country. Even though the effect of that poison was latent, it took a long time to manifest in some cases, it’s still poisoning nonetheless. It’s basically like dropping an atom bomb during a war and then having people affected by radiation for the next 30 years. That’s illegal under international law, and we hope that they’re going to see that point.”

The Vietnamese government says more than three million people have been disabled by Agent Orange. But the United States maintains there is no scientifically proven link between the wartime spraying and the disabilities. Attorney Jonathan Moore disputed the claims of the U.S. government.

Jonathan Moore: “Well, we spent three-and-a-half hours listening to issues about Agent Orange and fully vetted our belief that what these companies did during the war was a violation of international law because they used poison and because it was unnecessary and unjustified under any standard. Hopefully the court will agree with this and let us go forward.”