1 June 2008

RSA President's Address to Vietnam Veterans

RNZRSA National President Robin Klitscher's address at Tribute08, Basin Reserve, 1 June 2008.

On the dustcover of a recent book on Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, these words are quoted:

“War takes a blender to standards and values .... Men come back and spend the rest of their lives trying to find out who they are ...”

The book is titled Vietnam: The Australian War. The author is historian Paul Ham. And it was Harry Whiteside of the Australian SAS who said it.

Those who have been there will know what Harry Whiteside meant. But his blender effect spreads wider than those who have been to war and back. Earlier wars in which New Zealand had been involved were accepted by most as both necessary and just, if reluctantly.

But this could not be said of the Vietnam War. Somehow in the public quarrels, soldiers got the blame for what politicians had done. Something corroded the standards and values that had been applied on previous occasions to those whom this society had sent into war, and who had returned. This time there was only dismissiveness or worse. Harry Whiteside's blender had done its work at home as effectively as on the battlefields of that particular war. This had added to the hurt bewilderment of those who needed to find normality again. For many it also meant that proper understanding of the causes of illness, and therefore the treatment, would be too long delayed.

Governments – a succession of them – were not immune from the blender. Neither was the Defence Force. And, sad to say, nor was the RSA movement itself.

A few days ago we heard the Prime Minister apologise for what had happened – or did not happen. That was a remarkable occasion, including cross-party unity made stronger because it was spontaneous. Parliament gave the nation a very strong steer last Wednesday, and we thank our political leaders for that.

Today the Chief of Defence Force has added his apology; and we thank him as well, and accept it.

To their voices I now add my own. Within the RSA, barracking between returned cohorts had been common. Even so, it was never RSA intention, or policy, to sanction less than proper recognition of returning servicemen. The problem here was one of degree, and of inattention. The blender again. And for allowing the blender to get an occasional upper hand at the local level, for not treating returning Vietnam veterans wholly in accord with our founding principles, I sincerely and honestly apologise.

But apologies cannot re-write history, and I am very much aware of the dishonesty of suggesting that they might be enough on their own to erase the hurts of the past.

Apologies will have real effects only if they are given with sincere commitment to action.

The apologies we have heard in the last few days, including today, are of that character.

The facts were finally exposed by an especially penetrating Select Committee report. After determined efforts by veterans and others, including politicians both of government and opposition, to ensure the findings were taken fully into account, the present government became the first to have listened, and the first to have taken significant action, in all of the time since our forces were withdrawn from Vietnam so long ago.

At this point we must make special mention of the remarkable persistence over many, many years of a few committed veterans who kept the issues alive in the face of opposition, disbelief and, not uncommonly, downright ridicule. By sheer bloody-minded tenacity they finally came up with proofs. The Select Committee agreed that what they had been saying was right all along. And so they built the platform from which those who came later have been able to make progress.

Those of this special group know who they are. The rest of the veterans assembled here today also know who they are. I won't name them. But I do salute them, and their grit. So should everybody.

We need to remind ourselves, too, that in recent years the veterans' movement in general has rallied to the cause of Vietnam veterans. RSA and EVSA in particular have stood foursquare. Had they not done so, the gains made by the few over so many years would have been at risk once again. And there would have been no Memorandum of Understanding, or Tribute 08.

And I am not at all shy of putting this effort in the context of atonement for past shortcomings. But it is atonement with a further purpose, since it has been clear from the beginning that some of the hoped-for outcomes would affect all veterans, of all wars, evenly.

And so today we do have the Memorandum of Understanding. Not everyone agrees that what has been achieved goes far enough. But the balance sheet is positive. It is a very distinct improvement on what had gone before. And, although much that is in it quite properly focuses on Vietnam veterans and their families, there is also much in it for all veterans, not just for Vietnam veterans.

Without the MoU there would be no modernising overhaul of the War Pensions Act by the Law Commission in consultation with veterans' organisations. That is a task as long overdue as the MoU itself.

Without the MoU there would be no Expert Panel to examine in New Zealand terms the operational hazards that our service people have encountered in the past and will encounter in the future. The Expert Panel will very clearly be of as much value to the serving Defence Force as it will be to us who have served.

And without the MoU there would be no review of Veterans' Affairs New Zealand. The decision on placement has been taken. Work is now under way on the other points named in the MoU – the functions, responsiblities, structure and resources of VANZ.

These three are major gifts by the veterans of the Vietnam War to all veterans of all wars. They give us the machinery to deal with the present system’s shortcomings, provided we are wise enough to use the opportunities well. They also underscore that the MoU is not full and final.

Thus we do have alongside the apologies a very distinct commitment to a better future for veterans and all who have served or are serving, and their families. I believe those commitments are genuine at the political level, and across the political spectrum. Having seen what we saw at Parliament on Wednesday, and have seen this weekend, it would scarcely be possible to conclude otherwise.

I cannot of course guarantee that a future government, or a future Defence Force, will not revert to forgetfulness. One way of preventing this is further to strengthen the relationships with the government and its agencies that have sprung from the processes that led to the MoU – including the NZDF, which made us veterans. There is more work to do, but we are already well under way. Central to this, of course, will be the RNZRSA Affiliates, speaking in open dialogue and with one voice.

But I can also pledge this. If the RNZRSA detects the slightest sign of sliding back into the jaws of the blender by a government or its agencies, we will expend every energy, exhaust every resource, and use every influence we can muster to reverse the slide. It is simply not acceptable to allow political nervousness or the absence of public concern to shape in any way the manner in which New Zealand soldiers, sailors or airmen shall be treated. That is what will not be allowed to happen again.

And finally, to the citizens of Wellington and indeed to all of those up and down the country who have followed the events of this weekend so positively and encouragingly, thank you. You have given us great heart that the objectives I have referred to have been understood, and will be supported into the future.

What a blockbuster of a weekend it has been. Even the rain has held off. What a terrific endorsement we have all received. Thank you to Chris Mullane and the Tribute 08 team. Wellington too has done us proud. So have the schools, choirs and other groups – Wellington College this morning, and others at other times, have put their hearts and souls into it. The Defence Force has granted huge effort for the weekend; there's a message in that. And what astonishing energy has been put into it by Te Atiawa.

What a great responsibility it will be to ensure that we the veterans honour to a similar standard what has happened in these few days.