Buddy Mikaere: Vietnam vets snubbed in own country

A helicopter sprays a defoliation agent on a dense jungle area in the Mekong delta, Vietnam in 1969. Photo / File

I've been in Perth, Western Australia visiting with my cousin Dave who served as a scout in Whiskey2 Company of the 1st Royal New Zealand Infantry Battalion, in Vietnam.

Dave was one of several Tauranga soldiers who went to Vietnam during the years 1963 to 1975.

Altogether more than 3000 New Zealanders, military and civilian, served in Vietnam fighting alongside troops from Australia and the USA. Thirty-seven military personnel died there with a further 187 wounded.

When Dave's Whiskey2 Company arrived in Vietnam in May 1968, it was at the height of New Zealand's involvement and the soldiers were immediately pressed into service in the Vietnamese jungle, fighting a skilled guerrilla opponent in the Viet Cong, or the VC.

In a bid to deprive the VC and their allies, North Vietnamese soldiers, of their jungle sanctuary the Americans began a massive programme of aerial spraying of Agent Orange – a powerful herbicide and defoliant. Crops were also targeted by the Agent Orange spraying.

Use of Agent Orange seems to have been reasonably indiscriminate and there is documented evidence to show that both American and New Zealand troops operating in the jungle were sprayed.

There is no record of the numbers of civilians sprayed with Agent Orange. Some two million gallons were said to have been applied.

The legacy of Agent Orange and its impact on soldiers and civilians is appalling. Agent Orange has been shown to be responsible for many diseases including cancers: Chronic B-cell leukaemia, Hodgkin's disease, multiple myeloma, prostate cancer and respiratory cancers including lung cancer.

It is also responsible for birth deformities in children of veterans. Dave has leukaemia and other medical conditions which leave him in a poor state.

I can remember the visit of US President Lyndon Johnson in 1966 when there was clear majority support for the war but by the end of the 60s that position had reversed dramatically.

By the end of the fighting in Vietnam, the anti-war movement had matured and organised and grown to such an extent that it was in full swing.

When our New Zealand troops began returning home, they were met with protesters waving placards such as "Baby Killers" and bloody fracas broke out when protesters and returning soldiers clashed.

Some soldiers were ostracised and persecuted and they found the lack of support, particularly from the politicians who had sent them, bewildering. Advice and support from the military, social service agencies and even from the RSA was skimpy and not particularly forthcoming.

In 1971 a parade for returned troops took place in Auckland but it was disrupted by protesters and many veterans discount that event as a sham.

It took until 2008 for the Government to grant veterans and their families an "honour march" titled Tribute -08.

This was followed by a Crown apology delivered by Prime Minister Helen Clark, ironically a former anti-war movement leader.

Not surprisingly many of the Vietnam vets felt unwelcome in their home country and made their homes elsewhere.

Dave and some of his mates ended up in Perth where they have lived out the rest of their days, most in humble circumstances and receiving frugal assistance from the Australian veterans associations.

When I saw Dave, I learned that almost all his former soldier mates have died from cancer or leukaemia.

Although a Memorandum of Understanding (2006) outlining government actions in respect of the Vietnam veterans has been devised, many see it offering limited assistance, particularly medical, to Kiwi vets.

For many it is too little and far, far too late.

Buddy Mikaere is an historian, environmentalist, resource consents consultant and Tauranga Moana iwi representative with a wide variety of interests across the Mount Maunganui and Tauranga community. He serves on various council committees.