We are quite correctly asked to have sympathy for the Vietnam vets who have a range of health issues and respectability issues to deal with. However, I must disagree with recent attempts to bring respectability to the Vietnam War.
This war was immoral and undeclared. New Zealand soldiersdid not "fight for their country" as our country was never under threat. The soldiers who went there suffered the various hardship and tragedy associated with any war, but the price of honouring these soldiers is to rewrite history and to honour what went on in that war.
Returning vets were brought home in civilian clothing and under cover of darkness because the government of the day recognised the public feeling and the shame from the dishonourable conduct and involvement in that war. Why not sweep the whole sorry saga back under the carpet where it belongs?
With reference to the health issues resulting from Agent Orange, we must have sympathy for the soldiers who were in the area where defoliants were used. However, their doses of chemicals were mild when compared with the doses suffered by Vietnamese civilians whose homes were in the areas needing to be "defoliated".
One reason our government is reluctant to recognise the harm done to "our boys" is that they would then have to recognise harm done to the Vietnamese, and charges of war crimes could result.
It is an historic fact that there are never war criminals on the winning side, but remember that "we" did not win. We could, at the very least, be honest and mention the continuing health issues of the Vietnamese in the same breath as the issues involving our troops.
I have no wish to attack soldiers who went to Vietnam for their own, perhaps misguided, reasons. However, rewriting history does them no service whatever.
