For most Australians, certainly for those under the age of forty, ‘Vietnam’ is either an item on school curricula or a slightly off-the-beaten-path tourist destination. History or holiday. This may affront some, especially the small groups on either side of the 1960s cultural and political divide that cannot let go, but it is a sign of a generational shift and of the creation of the distance between ourselves and the event that is necessary for enhanced understanding and reconciliation between Australians and the Vietnamese.
The Vietnam War confounds the popular notion that the winners write the history, for in this war the losers have dominated popular cultural perception of their war in a manner that has allowed for relatively little variation on set themes. Overwhelmingly, the image of the war is American, not Australian or Korean, and certainly not Vietnamese. Rambo and Chuck Norris have little enough to say to the reality of US involvement (as opposed to its caricature), but they have nothing at all to say to the Australian experience.
Australia’s Battlefields in Viet Nam: A traveller’s guide by Gary McKay
Allen & Unwin, $24.95pb, 235pp
On the Offensive: The Australian Army in the Vietnam War 1967–1968 by Ian McNeill and Ashley Ekins
Allen & Unwin, $80hb, 679pp
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