Slippery path to war in Vietnam
Assurance of no more troops soon proved hollow
Exactly two years after Kiwis fired their first shots in the Vietnam War, Prime Minister Keith Holyoake told the Herald there had been no request for more New Zealand troops.
The next day — 50 years ago today — the paper said Holyoake “was adamant that New Zealand has no present plans to increase its military commitment in South Vietnam”.
Three months later, he announced an increase in New Zealand’s “V-Force” from 376 to 546 men, after a request from South Vietnam.
“The Government now believes that the demands of the Vietnam situation require a further effort of us,” he said.
In 1967, like today, sending troops to war was sensitive and controversial. For months, the Herald had been awash with debate about the possibility of an increase.
The Herald calculated that the increase to 546 would bring New Zealand’s military involvement to 0.025 per cent of the population; Australia’s planned increase to 8000 would mean 0.066 per cent of its population was involved.
The National Council of Churches opposed a troop increase and thousands of people marched in protest against the war. In Auckland, a police inspector was pushed over a cliff when protesters and police fought a “pitched battle” in Paritai Drive outside the home of the US consul. The officer halted his slide, but suffered a cut head and felt dazed.
New Zealand’s first shots in the war were artillery shells fired on July 16, 1965, near Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City).
In May that year, Holyoake had announced New Zealand would send a combat unit to join the US-led coalition. Before then, the New Zealand contribution consisted of reconstruction projects and a civilian surgical team treating civilian casualties.
More than 3000 New Zealand military and civilian personnel served in Vietnam between 1963 and 1975. Thirtyseven men on active service died and 187 were wounded. Two civilians with the surgical and Red Cross teams also lost their lives.
In 2008, the Government made a formal apology to How the reported the news that no more troops had been requested for Vietnam. Vietnam War veterans. Prime Minister Helen Clark acknowledged they were not treated fairly on returning home from the largely unpopular war. In 2007, a $30 million package was announced with the aim of compensating veterans and their families affected by Agent Orange and other chemicals used in the war.
A Returned and Services Association national vicepresident, Bob Hill, who served in Malaya, Borneo and Vietnam, said the apology “did mean a lot to the guys”.
“We came in [back to New Zealand] in the middle of the night. They didn’t want you in uniform and we went straight on leave. I never felt any backlash, unlike a lot of others.”
Hill said of his time in Vietnam: “As young professional soldiers it was exciting to go there.”
He was unscathed but said, “We had quite a few from our company who were wounded. We even had the Australians mortar us. That was exciting.”