Focus Question: Discuss the experiences of returning Australian service man from the Vietnam War.

The Vietnam War was different to all other wars seen in Australian history. It was an undeclared war with an enemy that was able to become part of a Vietnam community or was the community for example the Australian army had to search the village of Phuoc Hai. Due to government policies and the influence of the new medium of media showing images of whole villages being destroyed the war became extremely unpopular in Australia over its ten year span. The Vietnam War left very few Australians untouched as the society saw a long period of challenge and defiance towards authority. Consequently due to the views of the war and the fact that Australia and America lost the war, Australian serviceman who served voluntarily or were conscripted into the war endured a prolonged period of 'unwelcome'. This created much hostility and in Australian society.

The 'Vietnam Veteran' was existent in Australia in the year's post Vietnam withdrawal (VW). However they held a very low and at t

The experience immediately post withdrawal was that the whole episode was publicly suppressed from memory. Consequently, the veterans and their families were left to cope with the side effects of war as best they could. Many soldiers found the transition between war and civilian life traumatic, due to the lack of public support and the global emergence of a large change in attitude. Consequently the feeling of non-acceptance and isolation amongst the soldiers develop. An example of the mistreatment of a Vietnam veteran can be seen in a document used as a source called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Vietnam Veterans written by Gary McMahon a solider who did two tours of duty in Vietnam. In this document he described many soldiers being spat on, called murders, and asked why they were so stupid to go to war by protestors. This document contains a bias view as it was written by a soldier who has served in Vietnam who has based this document on his own views and thoughts of the events that have occurred. However it is a reality that these events did occur in society as it has been document in several different sources including the series Australians At war.

In the period after the mass return of soldiers there was confusion over the treatment of veterans either as another group of return serviceman forming part of the Anzac tradition. However, other soldiers of the ANZAC traditions did not want the Vietnam Veteran to be part of the tradition because they would bring humiliation upon th

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Approximate Word count = 1009
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)