Kiwi's role in Vietnam gets thorough treatment

New Zealand's Vietnam War
by Ian McGibbon, Exisle Publishing, $89.99
New Zealand has a long history of waging war overseas, from the Boer War to Afghanistan we have volunteered our people, but the Vietnam War was the first war we lost.
Our troops left New Zealand shores without the unanimous support of the country and returned to open disharmony - and a feeling of indifference from the Government until an official tribute in 2008.
New Zealand's Vietnam War is an official history written by Ian McGibbon of the Ministry of Culture and Heritage, with funding assistance from the New Zealand Defence Force.
His extensive research has enabled a detailed account of the operations carried out by New Zealand forces with interviews and letters providing insight into their experiences operating under an Australian framework.
Incidents such as friendly fire, alleged atrocities and Agent Orange are covered.
This handsome volume deserves a place on all New Zealand bookshelves.
Mr McGibbon, who grew up in Dannevirke, said the official nature of the project gave him an advantage over other historians who might have attempted the project.
"I doubt a freelance historian would have had the funds to go to Vietnam, the US and Australia where most of our records are kept," he said.
In World War II, the German-controlled French Vichy Government let the Japanese into Vietnam, leaving a vacuum when the war ended.
British-led Indian forces took the Japanese surrender in the south, while Chinese troops did the same in the north, where the communist Ho Chi Minh declared the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.
A war-weakened France eventually regained control of the country but the centuries-old aspirations of Vietnamese independence were strengthened with the independence of India, Burma, Pakistan, Ceylon and Indonesia.
Communist forces refined their guerrilla tactics from the northern mountains and France introduced a puppet government.
When France withdrew after suffering humiliating defeats, civil war ensued.
In the Cold War environment allies lined up to give the civil war a global context.
New Zealand became involved, outnumbered by US troops by 1000 to one at the height of the conflict, but was determined to match military effort with humanitarian aid.
The book has a glossary of terms and the many maps help orientate the reader to a very different time and place, a place where 37 New Zealanders gave their lives.