Lang, a ten-year-old Vietnamese, supported himself and his grandmother by begging in the streets of a small village south of Danang. One day he found something to play witha white phosphorous grenade. It exploded, killing his two brothers and blinding his grandmother. Nor was Lang spared. The phosphorus seared his face, creating a mask of horror that no Hollywood makeup man could fashion. It also burned away his eye sockets and eyelids, leaving him with large frightened eyes that he cannot close.
Lang's plight is anything but unique. There are anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 children like him in South Viet Nam....