Australia, U.S. Coattails & The Legacy of Long Tan

Nearly 50,000 Australians fought in Vietnam. These diggers, as Aussie infantrymen are called, returned home to an openly hostile public as did many of their American counterparts.

By some estimates, an extraordinary 5,000 Aussie Vietnam veterans have committed suicide over the last four decades, which puts a bitter edge to the Canberra government's catch-up efforts to thank these overlooked heroes through a holiday called Vietnam Veterans Day, which is August 18.

August 18 is the 40th anniversary of the Battle of Long Tan, where a small company of diggers pushed backed as many as 2,500 Vietcong in a bloody firefight.

The Bulletin says that comparisons with other epic battles in Australian history are misplaced:

The difference between the Australians who fought at Long Tan – or, indeed, any of the Vietnam War’s battles – and Gallipoli, the Middle East or New Guinea, could not be more pronounced. Unlike the veterans of earlier conflicts, those who survived Vietnam returned without ticker-tape, as pariahs and to taunts of “baby killer”, from a war that bitterly polarised Australia and which Canberra lost on Washington’s coat-tails. For too long their sacrifice went formally unheeded. Instead, the Vietnam veterans were simply expected to pick up the pieces where they left off and re-enter normal civilian life without complaint.

Vietnam Veterans Day has become a lightning rod for disaffected Aussie vets, who like their American counterparts, are finding that their medical and other benefits are being eroded by a budget-cutting government.

These vets include Edward Stanislaw Czerwinski (photo), who has become the cause celebre of vets fighting the government over the cutbacks. Czerwinski was injured during his first Vietnam tour and then horrifically maimed when he stepped on a landmine during his second tour.

Notes The Bulletin:

Czerwinski had, until last year, been provided with hydrotherapy and gym access to help with pain management. Since DVA [Department of Veterans Affairs] suddenly withdrew the treatment, Czerwinski has found himself trapped in a bureaucratic maze. His fruitless efforts to have the treatment reinstated have rendered him depressed and anxious, and placed enormous strain on his family.

More here.

(Hat tip to Tim Blair.)