As we Australians get ready to honour the courage and sacrifice of those who served in wars, conflicts, and peace operations on Anzac Day, I am sharing a different perspective each day to help prepare ourselves for the day itself, 25 April. Each instalment will also include a poem that I’ve chosen, which I’m sure you will find very moving, as I did.
Yesterday, I focused on the relationship between Australia and New Zealand which formed ANZAC at Gallipoli. Today, I deal with a war that was poorly managed here at home. It hurt our Vets. It’s time to seek their forgiveness.
Day 3: Wednesday, 23 April – “Mr. Vietnam Veteran: We love you. Thank you. We love you.”
“And the Anzac legends didn’t mention mud and blood and tears. And the stories that my father told me never seemed quite real. I caught some pieces in my back that I didn’t even feel. God help me, I was only nineteen.”
– Excerpt from “I Was Only Nineteen” by Redgum
Our nation sent 60,000 of our young men to fight in the Vietnam War, starting in 1962. It would be a difficult, long, drawn-out 13-year engagement that truly tested the patience, unity and resolve of the nations involved. As a country, we utterly failed that test.
This isn’t an analysis of Australia’s conduct or success in Vietnam – that’s a much larger exercise. Today, I want to speak respectfully but frankly about how we, those of us who didn’t serve, treated the men who came home. How many Australians of that era allowed the dividing lines of our political views become our own battle lines, our own war.
I also want to show that, regardless of our differing views, we – this generation of Anzac Day participants – can be a soothing balm of healing to those who still feel the pain of rejection and disrespect.
Our nation failed those nearly 60,000 returning Vietnam veterans from our Army, Navy, and Air Force. All of them men. 523 men didn’t return alive to witness the disrespect and rejection their brothers felt. 16 of those fallen were Tasmanians (some reports say 17). 2,400 men were wounded.
How many more were mentally wounded but not counted?
Political disagreement is not the issue here. After all, don’t we say at Anzac Day services that those who go to war fight for our freedoms? And chief among those freedoms is the liberal democratic system of choosing our governments.
But it has been observed even by a Prime Minister that large sections of our nation overlooked that the Vietnam War was a real military conflict, fought with real guns, tanks, helicopters, transport ships, and field hospitals. The political and cultural divide became the dominant battleground. Australians were divided, but their anger wasn’t aimed solely at politicians. It was also directed at the soldiers themselves – their own brothers, sons, and fathers who were sent to do their duty.
In 1992, Prime Minister Paul Keating gave a wonderful speech and reflected on this home-grown tragedy:
“We acknowledge that in this most debated and disputed of all wars, the first war to be televised, the real burden remained where it has always been in war: on those who fought and on their families and friends. I think it can be said that the passionate debates at home contrived to obscure this fact: as if the war was really being fought here. It was not. … In fact, I think it is true that our forgetting this was an extra burden, an extra pain, for the veterans of Vietnam and their families and friends to bear. That is why today those words ” Lest We Forget” have a profound meaning. Those who visit the memorial in future years will know that Australia did not forget. They will know that these Australians were heroes of the same order as the Anzacs, as those who fought in France, the Middle East, New Guinea and every other place where Australians have gallantly fought and died. – Paul Keating, Prime Minister, 1992.
In researching this article, I found countless Vietnam veterans recounting their experiences of rejection and disrespect. Here are three examples from Tasmanian veterans:
“When we got called up, we did what we had to do. That’s the main thing, you get called up and you did your job. We did what we did in Vietnam, and when we came home they were throwing tomatoes at us. They just didn’t want us, the RSL didn’t want to do anything with us and it was terrible.” – Ken Dann (The Mercury)
“I can understand why some men still find it difficult to remove themselves from the war and the time after it when they were treated so poorly. But what we see now on ANZAC Day is a great change.” – Kerry McCormick (The Examiner)
“When I flew back into Hobart, there was a protest in Franklin Square and I was of course in uniform, I had to go to the barracks, and I was spat on. That’s the sort of reception we all endured. It was pretty horrific. I tried to join the RSL and they wouldn’t have me because they said I hadn’t been to war, I wasn’t a returned soldier.” – Bryon Nichol (The Mercury)
Reconciliation
People my age and younger don’t remember these painful moments. However, I believe the old sorrow lingers in our national consciousness. That’s why I want to share a vivid memory from my time as Federal Member for Bass. In August 2006, I attended the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan in Canberra. Prime Minister John Howard used this opportunity to acknowledge the failings of our society in the 1970s. He went further; he thanked and deeply honoured the Vietnam veterans.
Mr Howard said:
We’re very conscious of the lingering impact of that psychological strain. Australia was not as grateful and respectful as it should have been 40 years ago. Let me say to all of you that your nation honours you, your nation respects you and your nation thanks you for your courage and your commitment and the way in which you did your duty as asked of you by your nation and the way in which you upheld the finest traditions of military service of which Australians are so proud.
“Your fellow Australians admire you and we thank you for your sacrifice and your contribution.” – John Howard, Prime Minister, 2006.
This was a deeply moving moment, one that left an impression on all who heard it.
Those of us Federal MPs and veterans present were given a simple white cross lapel pin, in the style of the memorial cross at Long Tan. A few days later on 18 August (Long Tan Day, which became Vietnam Veterans’ Day) I attended a local service at Launceston’s Cenotaph. Incidentally, at that service I had a wonderful conversation with local VVAA sub-branch member and future President Kerry Wise (dec). I asked him to accept my pin. He was very touched, received it and said some very kind things in return as gratitude. My overwhelming memory was of acknowledgment and healing.
I remain fairly close to the Vietnam veterans in Launceston. They don’t ask for anything much. But I do know one thing, everyone is looking for a little bit of respect and acknowledgment – especially when they’ve made large sacrifices for others.
If you’ve read this far, thank you. You might be wondering: How can you play that part I mentioned earlier, “to be a soothing balm of healing”.
So, I’m asking you to seek out a Vietnam veteran this Anzac Day and thank him for his service. If his wife or partner or children are with him, thank them too. They have all endured the pain and consequences of war in their own individual ways.
This is what a Vietnam Medal and ribbon looks like. A Vietnam veteran may well be wearing one just like this.
I am not asking you to apologise on behalf of past generations or the country. But would you be able to find your own words to acknowledge the errors of the past? That we were wrong to not give 100% respect and thanks? Ask them if they can find it in their hearts to forgive these old offences. Tell him his country loves him.
What better way can we practically demonstrate our pledge: “We will remember them.”
If you are a Vietnam War veteran reading this, I simply want to say:
Mr. Vietnam Veteran, we love you. Thank you. We love you.
Lest we forget.
I Was Only 19
– Redgum
Mum and Dad and Danny saw the passing out parade at Puckapunyal
It was a long march from cadets
The sixth battalion was the next to tour and it was me who drew the card
We did Canungra and Shoalwater before we left
And Townsville lined the footpaths as we marched down to the quay
This clipping from the paper shows us young and strong and clean
And there’s me in me slouch hat with me SLR and greens
God help me – I was only nineteen
From Vung Tau riding Chinooks to the dust at Nui Dat
I’d been in and out of choppers now for months
And we made our tents a home, V.B. and pinups on the lockers
And an Asian orange sunset through the scrub
And can you tell me, doctor, why I still can’t get to sleep?
And night time’s just a jungle dark and a barking M16?
And what’s this rash that comes and goes, can you tell me what it means?
God help me – I was only nineteen
A four week operation, when each step can mean your last one on two legs
It was a war within yourself
But you wouldn’t let your mates down ’til they had you dusted off
So you closed your eyes and thought about somethin’ else
And then someone yelled out “Contact”, another bloke swore
We hooked in there for hours, then a God almighty roar
And Frankie kicked a mine the day that mankind kicked the moon
God help me – he was goin’ home in June
And I can still see Frankie, drinkin’ tinnies in the Grand Hotel
On a thirty-six hour rec. leave in Vung Tau
And I can still hear Frankie, lying screaming in the jungle
‘Til the morphine came and killed the bloody row
And the Anzac legends didn’t mention mud and blood and tears
And the stories that my father told me never seemed quite real.
I caught some pieces in my back that I didn’t even feel
God help me, I was only nineteen.
Sources:
https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/event/vietnam
https://www.examiner.com.au/story/8224434/tasmanias-vietnam-veterans-honoured-50-years-on/
https://www.themercury.com.au/news/tasmania/the-vietnam-memorial-at-anzac-park-in-lindisfarne-honours-all-tasmanian-vietnam-casualties/news-story/075d5f2e610cc14a5402250f83168385
https://pmtranscripts.pmc.gov.au/release/transcript-8567
https://www.smh.com.au/national/pm-pays-tribute-to-vietnam-veterans-20060818-gdo7eo.html
https://www.defence.gov.au/adf-members-families/honours-awards/australian-awards/vietnam-medal
