Vietnam and Effects on Australian Society

Hypothesis: The Vietnam Veteran undertook a different experience on their return from duty than that was previously seen in Australian history.

Focus Question: Discuss the experiences of returning Australian service man from the Vietnam War.

The Vietnam War was different to all other wars seen in Australian history. It was an undeclared war with an enemy that was able to become part of a Vietnam community or was the community for example the Australian army had to search the village of Phuoc Hai. Due to government policies and the influence of the new medium of media showing images of whole villages being destroyed the war became extremely unpopular in Australia over its ten year span. The Vietnam War left very few Australians untouched as the society saw a long period of challenge and defiance towards authority. Consequently due to the views of the war and the fact that Australia and America lost the war, Australian serviceman who served voluntarily or were conscripted into the war endured a prolonged period of ‘unwelcome’. This created much hostility and in Australian society.

The ‘Vietnam Veteran’ was existent in Australia in the year’s post Vietnam withdrawal (VW). However they held a very low and at t

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Therefore they had no way in which to cleanse themselves of the experiences and traumas that had developed. An example of the mistreatment of a Vietnam veteran can be seen in a document used as a source called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Vietnam Veterans written by Gary McMahon a solider who did two tours of duty in Vietnam. Consequently, the Vietnam veterans suffered deep pain by being denied their place in a powerful Australian tradition by both the government and society. They would than returning to a charade of normality where they were never noticed to have been absent or they were hassled by protests. They received no official thankyou from any one including the government.

Experiences within the war varied between battalions, like wise the experiences of war varied dramatically between individual soldiers due to their exposure to different elements of war. However, other soldiers of the ANZAC traditions did not want the Vietnam Veteran to be part of the tradition because they would bring humiliation upon the tradition. The Vietnam veteran was not official recognised by society due to the embarrassments associated with the war. The government and society believed that by forgetting the return service men of an illegitimate and lost war the memories associated with the war would be quickly forgotten. Many soldiers found the transition between war and civilian life traumatic, due to the lack of public support and the global emergence of a large change in attitude. There they were met by family and demonstrators of the anti war movement. However it is a reality that these events did occur in society as it has been document in several different sources including the series Australians At war.

In the period after the mass return of soldiers there was confusion over the treatment of veterans either as another group of return serviceman forming part of the Anzac tradition. However some soldiers returned by regular charter flights, others by troopships and Medevac Hercules.

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