The state conference was last week, with the delightfully ambiguous (and, for Australians, mildly hilarious) title, full of over/undertones – it was Frontline: The state we’re in.^ I went to the Friday, because the Thursday seemed to be mostly aimed at primary teachers – all well and good, but not for a secondary teacher. The key note speaker (who was preceded, by the way, by an acknowledement of the traditional owners of the land… we are nothing but pointed, we historians) was John M…someone whose name I didn’t get clearly. He’s from the Commemorations branch of the Dept of Veterans’ Affairs, who has just put together a book of reminiscences of Vietnam vets.^^ He was speaking on issues to do with remembering and teaching Australia’s involvement in Vietnam, which I thought I would record here… it was apt, really, since the 40th anniversary of Long Tan was this year – a battle which has become synonomous with the Australian experience there, and is now officially Vietnam Veterans’ Day.^^^ So:

*Much of the reflection on the Vietnam War has been done for and by Americans – even in Australia.
— The Australian experience was different. They experienced less heavy fighting than the US and S Vietnamese. The First Australian Taskforce was put in a largely secure province; they did manage to keep it secure. It was different, and there were lots of reasons for this:
— Australian soldiers tended to be better educated; there was less of a black/white issue; less drug-taking; the social background of the conscripts was more broad – all in comparison to the US soldiers. And ultimately, 521 service personnel and seven civilians were killed, against 50,000 Americans.

*Australians have formed a collective memory of poor treatment of Vietnam vets – that is, this memory seems to be held by society at lare, but not necessarily by the Vets themselves.
— 6 Battalion received a Welcome Home Parade in Brisbane after Long Tan. Others, of course, didn’t always get this – but it’s still not true to say that no Vets were officially welcomed home until the parade of 1987.
— There is a feeling in some quarters that one mustn’t break ranks, or correct misconceptions. Don’t want chinks in the armour to show….

*The issue of supporting the war or not was not black and whie, as people today might like to think. The peace movement got bigger slowly, and for a myriad of reasons – there was no one concept of what the peace movment was all about. A minority marched, and a minority of them were nasty. At the same time, there was no articulation – as there is today – that one can support the troops but not the war.
— It’s very important to remember that Vietnam vets were not the first to have issues coming from home; they and their campaigning for recognition have helped both their ancestors (eg recognising PTSD in WWII soldiers) as well as their descendents.

*Memorials = fragments of memory, creating history.
— The desire to be seen in the ANZAC tradition is very strong.
— In the Australian memorial, the names are not etched in, as they are in the Washington memorial; history, not personalised.
— “Huey” is often seen as the hero of Vietnam, rather than a person. It’s hard to idealise a helicopter….
— The memorial sets in stone how they saw the war, and also the after-effects – the experience doesn’t end with coming home. There are quotes about the Welcome Home Parade in ’87, as well as lines from “I was only 19”.

*So how do we teach it?
— Let go of the word ‘hero’: vets don’t tend to like it; you lose the ordinary-ness of the servicemen – the extraordinary things they did were ordinary for them.
— Bring in the allied (and even the enemy?) perspective. The Australian experience is, after all, limited, both in general and in Vietnam in particular.
— If we don’t do this, we lose perspective in many ways. Was the Australian experience special, different? How can we know without a comparison?
— The protest movement: did not bring the boys home (this happened because the US were leaving), and did not end conscription. It’s important not to drown out either side: it’s all a part of the whole experience.
— The movement started in 1965 with mothers marching under “Save our Sons” in Melbourne, getting publicity doing that.
— Will we get to the point where we can look at the political decisions beforehand as well as during the war?

^I originally wrote that with a capital ‘s’, and then realised that – to me at least – it changed the feel quite a lot. So I took it off.

^^I was looking through the display copy on the DVA table, and realised that one of the guys, Garry Casey, is someone I know – he was a pall bearer for Dad. And there were a couple of other names I thought I recognised. I went outside to call Mum and tell her about it, to see if she had heard about it; she hadn’t. I went back to ask where I could get a copy… the author happened to be standing there talking to a DVA dude… and he slipped me a copy! Outstanding!

^^^And my Mum’s birthday. Dad took her out pretty much every birthday for dinner… to Legacy, for the Long Tan dinner. Tres romantic. At least she didn’t have to cook, I guess.

Addenda courtesy of a couple of historical consultants…
“Bit of a generalization to say that “They experienced less heavy fighting than the US and S Vietnamese.” Some Aussie units did experience pretty heavy stuff, in particular the special forces guys – although not called that then. Also the experiences of a bomber pilot were pretty much the same whether in Aus or US command; same same ship-borne ops off the coast. Same same helo pilot/gunner etc. Same same loggies and intel etc – it’s important to realise that warfare isn’t just about the sharp end…. Less than 10% of the troops do the fighting if that’s what you call infantry versus infantry, armour ops etc.
…

“– The protest movement: did not bring the boys home (this happened because the US were leaving), and did not end conscription. It’s important not to drown out either side: it’s all a part of the whole experience.” – yes, agree. Pls don’t bring in Whitlam’s oft-repeated lie he “brought the troops home”…”

And this is from Peter Williams, my Yr12 history teacher, who is now doing a PhD about the Kokoda Trail (using Japanese sources, which apparently no Australian has really done before):
“I agree with everything he said about commemorating Vietnam – what a sensible fellow. He could perhaps have added that the fear of communism spreading down thru Asia-the domino theory-was widely believed at the time, I remember it well myself. Hence it seemed very much in Australia’s interest to try to stop another Asian state going communist.

And a little story from the era – very early in the war I was still at school and my mate… brought to class a letter from his big brother in Vietnam stating that his platoon had ambushed the enemy and he himself had killed four commies – we were all enthralled and delighted – we wanted to join up and do that too.”