Australia and the Vietnam War- Vietnam Veterans

by Ben Davis & Claire Ferguson 

edited by

Jonathan Liew and Christopher Jones

"Today let us also remember the brave soldiers who died for our freedom and our veterans who stood in harm's way to guard our freedoms."  Michael N. Castle

Introduction

The Vietnam War was extremely unpopular with the Australian public and in a way, divided the country. In the early years of the war there was much controversy. Many protests were held which often ended in violence. See Early Support for the War. In previous wars, returned soldiers were held in high esteem by the general public of Australia. However, the Vietnam veterans were not officially recognized by the government, in fact they didn't even recieve a celebratory parade. The lack of recognition went so far as to turn into complete and utter rejection of the returned soldiers by the citizens of Australia. Even today, veterans are still struggling to gain recognition for their service, and compensation for the physical and psychological trauma the war inflicted upon them.

Suffering Veterans

For many of the returned Australian soldiers who fought in Vietnam, life became harder and for many it was difficult to re-adjust to civilian life. Post traumatic stress disorder affected one in five soldiers. This disorder was caused by the horrific nature of the fighting and the terrible experiences veterans had in Vietnam. See Guerilla Warfare for further details about the nature of the Vietnam War. This made it hard for many veterans to return to a normal life. As well as this, Vietnam veterans have higher rates of head and neck cancer, alcohol related diseases and suicide when compared with the rest of the community. War chemical defoliants were used in the Vietnamese jungle such as the particularly nasty Agent Orange, which was highly toxic and health concerns were raised about the effect of the use of this and other chemicals on the veterans' health.

Veteran Initiatives

What made these issues more impactive was that the government completely ignored the veterans plight. Finally, the Vietnam Veterans Association was formed in 1979. More about Vietnam Veterans on Legacy of the War. The association aimed to reach out to the veterans, as well as pressuring the government to investigate the effects of the herbicides and chemicals, including Agent Orange, used in Vietnam. This organisation still exists today. It's website is www.vvaa.org.au. initial government inquiry found no link between Agent Orange and the veterans' health issues. The veterans refused to accept this finding and continued to pressure the government to look further into the issue. Only in 1994, the government finally accepted that there was a number of medical studies and surveys that proved there were links between a number of cancers among Vietnam veterans and exposure to chemicals. As a result of these new findings many veterans finally received compensation from the government.

Plugin error: That plugin is not available.

Finally Recognised

In March 1987, a whole fifteen years after the soldiers had returned to home turf, the government supported a Welcome Home Parade for the Vietnam veterans through the streets of Sydney and in 1992 the Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial was opened in Canberra. The government and the people of Australia had finally recognized the service and commitment of the Australian soldiers who fought, suffered, fell and returned to an unwelcoming country.

References:

Mason, 1975, Experience Of Nationhood, Fifth Edition, McGraw Hill, Australia.

Friedman, 2005, Australian PSYOP of the Vietnam War, 7th June 2007, <www.psywarrior.com/AustralianVNPSYOP.html>