Book – The Long Shadow: Australia’s Vietnam Veterans since the War

Author: Peter Yule
Publisher: UNSW Press
Reviewer: Dominic H Katter

On 29 February 1972, HMAS SYDNEY (III) sailed from Vũng Tàu on the last voyage from Vietnam, with D Company 4 RAR, an assault pioneer and mortar section, and a detachment of Armoured Personnel Carriers that had provided protection to the Task Force headquarters and 1 Australian Logistic Support Group until the final withdrawal of stores and equipment could be completed. 

With the exception of a group of Army advisers, that was the withdrawal of Australian military personnel from Vietnam. HMAS SYDNEY (III) arrived in Sydney on 12 March 1972.  The Long Shadow refers, with significant detail, to Australia’s Vietnam Veterans since 1972. 

As stated by General The Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK, CVO, MC in the Foreword, the book chronicles the “long years of struggle by the Veterans to urge for recognition of disabilities and the slow adjustment by the nation’s supporting systems”.     

Initial chapters particularise the repatriation circumstances in Australia before the commitment of Australian personnel to the conflict in Vietnam. The chapters combine both ‘broad’ articulations and individual articulations by those who served. 

For example: ‘South Vietnamese Government control had been reduced to the major towns, with the countryside totally dominated by the Viet Cong.  Captain Adrian Roberts (1 APC Squadron 1966-1967, AATTV 1971-72), who served in Phuoc Tuy in 1966 and again in 1972, described the remarkable way the province quickly deteriorated … ” (page 43).  (Colonel Roberts served as a troop commander at Long Tan on 18 August 1966 and later as a Captain adviser to the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam.)

The issues considered in the initial chapters are comprehensive, including: casualties, land mines, mortar fire, medical evacuation in the field and to repatriation hospitals in Australia, RAAF and US helicopter evacuation, helicopter winching of wounded, malaria, the Royal Australian Army Nursing Corps and 1 Australian Field Hospital, Vũng Tàu. 

The subsequent chapters then traverse various issues, including: “Agent Orange”, the “Evatt Royal Commission”, “PTSD”, the “Official History”, “Mental Health” and “Physical Health”. For a lawyer reading this work, there is an interesting commentary on the “Evatt Royal Commission”, both as to personalia and process.       

The author, Dr Peter Yule, is a Research Fellow at the School of Historical and Philosophical Studies at the University of Melbourne. Dr Yule has also written a history of the Victorian Bar. 

This is the story of those that served, often quoted in their own words. The book interfaces the conflict, with the technical, administrative, legal and practical consequences for those who served.