A TRIBUTE TO PAST COMRADES: 37 New Zealand flags paraded in memory of the New Zealanders who died in Vietnam at the final Commemoration and Celebration event at the Basin Reserve on Sunday, 1 June 2008.

What a Tribute!

Tribute08 had everything that could be expected of a gathering bound togfether by shared adversity. It had tears and it had laughter; it had formality but was relaxed; it mingled tikanga Maori protocol with military pomp and Christian prayer; it looked back and it looked forward. It was the 30 May-1 June commemoration and reunion and long-awaited official, national “Welcome Home” for all New Zealand Vietnam War veterans and their families.

RSA Review report

National President’s Speech at Tribute08

AN EMOTIONAL TRIBUTE: Emotions get the better of these ladies as they carry their lost loved one’s photograph to Parliament on Saturday, 31 May 2008.

Everything that could be expected

By RSA Review Editor Barry Allison

Tribute08 was organised with government assistance as part of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed in December 2006, in which the Government recognised that Vietnam veterans and their families have legitimate concerns about how they have been treated over the past 30 years.

Organising committee chairman Chris Mullane said Tribute08 was of national significance and marked the point at which Vietnam veterans – and their families – received proper recognition, with dignity and respect, for their service, which the nation has sadly denied them in the past.”

He said it was also a unique opportunity for veterans to meet old mates and share memories particularly at the sub-unit reunions.

ARM IN ARM, HAND IN HAND: Vietnam veterans, wives, children and grandchildren march together down Wellington’s Lambton Quay.

Many RSA members are Vietnam veterans and took part in the event. Included were RNZRSA National President Robin Klitscher and the Immediate Past President John Campbell and RNZRSA National Executive Committee members “Guv” Grey, Denny Morris and Des Wallace.

	IT’S ABOUT WHANUA: RNZRSA National Executive Committee member Guv Grey and grandson Jordan watch Tribute08 unfold at Parliament. Guv served in Victor Company from May- December 1967.

Mr Grey served in Victor Company from May to December 1967. For him Tribute08 was a happy occasion and not one of sadness. He said the whole event was, “something I will never forget. I don’t believe there will be any other like it again. It was well organised and put together.” Mr Grey said he was not an emotional person but, he had his grandson Jordan Hughes with him and, “there were times when I grabbed him and said I’m glad you’re with me to see this”.

Mr Gray said the “watering holes” were a highlight and he had met mates he had not seen for up to 41 years.

BATMAN FOR A DAY: Des Wallace (right) accompanies Colonel (Retd) John Masters on the Honour March from Civic Square to Parliament.

Des Wallace said he found the event to be a mixture of sadness and happiness and contemplation. “I felt OK before Tribute08 began and I felt OK after it.” He served in Vietnam with 161 Battery and said he spent most of Tribute08 accompanying his old boss Colonel (Retd) John Masters, whom he drove in the now infamous Queen Street parade. Highlights for him were the honour march, “the support from people in the street gave me a great feeling”, .the helicopter flypast, “seeing them brought a lump to the throat and I saw many heads down and tears in eyes”, and meeting up again with some battery mates he had not seen since returning to New Zealand.

Denny Morris was Chief Clerk, Headquarters V Force during 1966-67. Responsible for administration matters for New Zealand troops he was constantly visiting New Zealand units, wherever they may have been. He said Tribute08 was “tremendous”, particularly the honour parade, where the reception from onlookers made him feel he really had come home, the National War Memorial Hall of Memories service and the Basin Reserve commemoration apologies and military ceremony. He too met comrades he had not seen for decades and thought it was now time for Vietnam veterans “to let it go” and just get on with life.

	Denis Dwayne, left, and Bill Rawiri carry a waka wairua (a vessel carrying the spirits of those soldiers who died in Vietnam and also those who have since passed away) during the Tribute08 Whakanoa (tapu lifting ceremony) at Parliament. The waka wairua played a significeant role at Parliament and the National War Memorial commemorative service the next day. It is now in pride of place in the Gallipoli Room, ANZAC House, the RNZRSA Headquarters.

Robin Klitscher spoke at theBasin Reserve commemoration following the Chief of Defence Force, apologising for the failure of the RSA in not treating returning Vietnam veterans wholly in accord with the RSA’s founding principles. [read Mr Klitscher’s full speech here]

While hundreds of veterans and their families attended Tribute08, the veteran community remains divided. Some objected to paying a registration fee to attend and said the MoU helps just one per cent of veterans.

Some say the reconciliation is too little too late and, despite the MoU providing for $40,000 one off payments for veterans suffering any one of five prescribed conditions, called it a band aid solution for a major surgical problem and want 10 more conditions included.

Having to pay income tax while on active service in Vietnam while the Australians they fought alongside did not, also rankles. The refusal so far to refund the tax, estimated at $8000 per head, has been described as the biggest single issue.

Robin Klitscher, who flew helicopters in Vietnam, says criticisms of the MoU are unfair. He said the RNZRSA is pursuing payments for more “prescribed conditions” and the Vietnam issue is not closed. He also said the MoU will benefit all military veterans.

A FAMILY PAYS TRIBUTE: James Joseph Thompson carries the photograph and wears the medals of his grandfather Vietnam veteran Y303668 Sergeant Joseph Tumu Johnston, who died in 1994. At left is Joseph’s widow Moana and at right his sister Rovina Maniapoto. Mrs Thompson said, “I can honestly say having my only male mokopuna at my side gave me strength to march with the other soldiers and their families and to carry Joseph’s photo with pride, sadness, and aroha. Because of this I have finally put closure to the grief and pain I have felt since the death of my dear husband. I truly believe it was the effects of “Agent Orange” that caused the metastasis of the brain, the illness that was diagnosed as the cause of his death. After my husband returned from Vietnam he began experiencing severe migraine headaches. These continued for 24 years before he was admitted to Wellington Public Hospital to have a large cancerous growth removed from his brain. Three months later he passed away. Vietnam wasn't Joseph’s first operational tour. He also served in Malaya and Borneo but returned without any illness, skin irritations or blemishes. I am sure there must be many young widow wives and families who have similar stories like mine, but too afraid to tell of their experiences, hurts, and hardships of bringing our children up alone – just in case we might be seen as ‘can’t handle it’ – ‘harden up’. We are supposed to be strong like our husbands!”

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RNZRSA National President Robin Klitscher, centre, between Eru Manuera, far left, and Immediate Past President John Campbell, with Chris Mullane far right, during the Tribute08 welcoming Powhiri at Civic Square.

National President’s Speech at Tribute08

Telecasts on Queen's Birthday weekend included coverage of the Tribute 08 event in Wellington. They included a very short clip – a few seconds only – from my speech at the Basin Reserve on the Sunday. This, I suggest, should not be seen as something on its own but in the context of the whole.

We should of course remember that the very thorough RNZRSA submission to the Joint Working Group was approved by the NEC in early 2006, and it included honest acknowledgements that although the RSA had by no means failed in its duty to returning veterans, in some cases its performance had been patchy. The speech rested upon that publicly-stated position. For the record, and for perspective, here it is in full.

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 proof. 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.