25 April 2025

Dear Jack, Henry, and Theodore,
It's ANZAC Day today—a solemn occasion to honour and remember the Australian and New Zealand servicemen and women who sacrificed their lives in global conflicts.
As you know, I served in the Australian Army for two years between 1969 and 1970. I was not a professional soldier but was conscripted by ballot. Our Government chose to support the American government to fight against communism in South Vietnam. Our Regular Army was not sufficiently large to be useful in the conflict so conscription became necessary. During the war, Australia lost 502 soldiers killed (about half were conscripts), hundreds seriously wounded and thousands affected by the cruelty of war.
I march in Geelong's ANZAC Day Parade every year wearing my campaign medals on the right side and my father's campaign medals on my left side. However, I don't march with pride, as some may think, but to remember those who sacrificed their lives so that the rest of us have the opportunity to live in peace.
Today is the most sacred day in our calendar and has been since 1918, the end of World War One. On the positive side though, I get to march with my old army friends. Most of us see each other just once a year. After the march, and the remembrance ceremony that follows, we hug each other and our wives hug each other. As each year goes by there are fewer of us. The time will come when there will be no Vietnam veterans left. But ANZAC Day will continue and it will be left to you three to continue the remembrance. On April 25, wherever you are in Australia, there will always be an ANZAC Day commemoration. You can take it in turn to wear my and your great-grandfather's campaign medals on your left chest. This will remind others, lest they forget.

Love , Poppa

About the Vietnam War

In your mind, journey back to 1963. It was less than two decades since the end of World War II. A new kind of conflict was unfolding—the Cold War. The name ireflected the icy tensions between the USSR and the Western Allies. It was a standoff of political ideologies, with global stakes and constant threat of a nuclear war.

After World War II, Japan was forced to relinquish its dominance over Southeast Asia, giving up territories like Thailand, Formosa (now Taiwan), Burma (now Myanmar), Indonesia, and Malaysia. This shift in power created a vacuum that other forces sought to exploit.
The Soviet Union, established in 1922 under Vladimir Lenin and later ruled by Joseph Stalin, was a formidable superpower. Stalin, infamous for his ruthless control, expanded the USSR’s influence rapidly, turning Eastern European nations like Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland into communist satellites. Meanwhile, he supported revolutions in Cuba and Central and South America. His successor, Nikita Khrushchev, carried on the USSR’s aggressive ambitions.
Under Stalin’s regime, millions of his enemies, real and perceived, were executed or exiled to gulags—brutal prison camps in remote, freezing regions. Fear and oppression were Stalin's trademarks, and he wielded them with precision.
At the same time, Mao Zedong was cementing his power in China. In the 1930s, Mao led the Long March, a gruelling campaign that solidified his leadership with a cult-like following. Inspired by Stalin, Mao adopted similar tactics to maintain control, founding the Chinese Communist Party and extending his influence into countries like Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Malaya, and Indonesia. Mao’s regime was marked by widespread political executions, Conservative estimates placed the death toll in the hundreds of thousands.
The communist agenda wasn’t limited to Asia. Soviet and Chinese agents sought to expand their reach into Australia, infiltrating trade unions, academia, and even the Australian Labor Party. This led to the infamous "Labor Split," a story for another time, but one that deeply unsettled Australia's political leaders.
In Europe, East Germany built the Berlin Wall to prevent its citizens from fleeing to the democratic West. The USSR tightened its grip on Eastern Europe, while China extended its influence over Cambodia, North Vietnam, and Laos. In Indonesia, our closest Asian neighbour, President Soekarno leaned toward communism, further heightening tensions in Australia and New Zealand.
By 1954, Vietnam was officially divided into North and South at the 17th parallel. Ho Chi Minh, the leader of the North, rejected peace agreements and launched a campaign to unify Vietnam under communist rule. This began with acts of terrorism, escalated with the rise of the Viet Cong guerrillas, and culminated in full-scale warfare with the North Vietnamese Army.
Alarmed by the rapid spread of communism, the United States decided to act, leveraging its military and economic power to intervene. Australia aligned itself with U.S. Presidents Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. In 1964, our Prime Minister Harold Holt, introduced conscription to support its military commitment to South Vietnam. This is where I come into the story— in 1968 I was drafted into the army at the height of the war.
I have always felt it was right to try to prevent the communist takeover of South Vietnam. Had we not done it, I was worried that Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines would be next. Perhaps it is an undeserved luxury for me to have that opinion. Fortunately, I was not a combat soldier; the risk of losing my life was minimal. But frankly, I doubt our political leaders had much choice but to join the fight. I was disappointed that other Western powers did not join the commitment, Great Britain especially so. Twice Australia sent troops in support of Britain in World Wars One and Two but when it was time to help us, it declined to do so.
Was the war executed well by the anti-communist forces in Vietnam? Probably not. Huge mistakes, strategically and tactically were made but hindsight is a commodity gifted to no one.
Was Australia's conscription process an equitable way to draft soldiers for the Australian army? No. Furthermore, it lay at the root of the Protest Years (1968-73) that divided the country.
So, was it worth it? Well, consider this. The spread of Communism was halted in 1973. It's true that some of the countries in our part of the world still have totalitarian governments (Myanmar and Laos come to mind) but in the twenty years after the Vietnam War, the USSR collapsed, the Berlin Wall was torn down, Yugoslavia was broken up into its ethnic constituencies. Poland,  Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria - all once Communist countries - now have democratically elected governments.
So, instead of falling into the temptation of denigrating the Vietnam War as a historic blot on  Australia's history, commemorate the lives of the thousands of Vietnamese, American, South Korean, Philipino, Australian and New Zealand soldiers who lost their lives in South Vietnam defending your freedom.