Quy, 50, a farmer who lives in the northern port city of Haiphong, breaks down when asked why he joined two Vietnamese women in filing the country's first suit against the Agent Orange makers.

"I got ill but I don't have enough money to treat it. When I think about it, I get very sad," he said, wiping his eyes with his sleeve as his deaf and mute 16-year-old daughter and palsied 17-year-old son sat beside him.

Quy and two women who also say they or their relatives were made ill by the toxic defoliant named for the containers in which it was stored have attracted a groundswell of local and foreign support since filing the Jan. 30 lawsuit in a New York court.

Dow Chemical Co. and Monsanto Co, the two largest makers of Agent Orange, are among more than 30 firms named in the suit, which seeks compensation and a clean-up of contaminated areas. A hearing is scheduled for December.

At least 100 more Vietnamese have joined the legal action since it was announced.

An online petition started by a British activist asking the U.S. government and chemical makers to pay compensation to the victims has attracted more than 500,000 signatures.

BIRTH DEFECTS

The chemical, used by U.S. forces to deny food and jungle cover to the Vietnamese communists, remained in the water and soil decades after it was first sprayed. Hanoi estimates there are 3 million Agent Orange victims in the country.

Between 1962 and 1971, an estimated 20 million gallons of herbicides, including Agent Orange, were used in Vietnam. Spraying was halted before the war ended in 1975.

Agent Orange is blamed for nightmarish birth defects in the Southeast Asian country, where babies appeared with two heads, or without eyes or arms.

U.S. veterans of the war have complained for years of a variety of health problems from exposure to the herbicide.

Dioxin, the toxic compound in Agent Orange, has been shown to cause cancer, birth defects and organ dysfunction. Quy believes his children were born disabled as a result of his exposure after he unknowingly opened a canister of the product he had found.

It is unclear whether the Vietnamese plaintiffs will succeed, but there are precedents in a 1984 agreement by Dow and Monsanto to pay $180 million to U.S. veterans. The U.S. government has consistently refused to discuss compensation.

"We believe that we have a very good case," said Constantine Kokkoris, one of the U.S. lawyers representing the plaintiffs, during a visit to Vietnam in July to gather information. "We believe Vietnamese victims are allowed to sue in a U.S. court."

Kokkoris said those rallying behind the case included U.S. veterans sickened by the chemical.

"I've spoken to many U.S. veterans who feel very strongly that they were the unintended victims of Agent Orange and the Vietnamese were the intended victims."

SINGING DREAMS

Ta Duy Anh isn't part of the Agent Orange lawsuit, but the 14-year-old with cerebral palsy would join it if given the chance.

The only child of veteran Ta Dinh Dung, 52, who fought in central Quang Tri province, one of the most heavily defoliated and mined areas of Vietnam, was diagnosed by doctors as being a victim of the defoliant.

Anh, who lives in the capital, uses a wheelchair and plastic prostheses on his legs to move around. He is studying English and goes to school, but speaks with difficulty because of a shortened tongue.

His father suffers from skin diseases, allergies and sometimes breathing problems, but is otherwise mobile. He spends his time looking after Anh, ferrying him to school and helping him put on or take off the prostheses provided by foreign donors.