Tag Archives: Vietnam War

May 1965 – This month last century

14 May 2012 – 4.30pm

47 years ago  Keith Holyoake announced that New Zealand would send a combat unit to Vietnam to support the US-led coalition fighting there (24 May 1965).

The Right Hon. Keith J. Holyoake C.H. circa 1965, New Zealand. William Dargie (1912-2003). Gift of Sir Henry Kelliher, 1967. © Te Papa.

The Right Hon. Keith J. Holyoake C.H. circa 1965, New Zealand. William Dargie (1912-2003). Gift of Sir Henry Kelliher, 1967. © Te Papa.

This is a portrait of the National party Prime Minister Keith Holyoake who, at the end of May 1965, announced that a combat unit from New Zealand would be deployed to Vietnam. This was the 161st Battery RNZA, a four-gun field artillery battery. Originally comprising of around 120 men, the battery’s strength was increased to six guns in 1966.

Although medical staff and military engineers had already been posted to Vietnam, this represented New Zealand’s first military commitment to what would be the country’s longest and most controversial military engagement of the twentieth century.

Between 1964 and 1972, a total of 3,500 New Zealanders served in what amounted to  Vietnam’s civil war.

Yet it was the Cold War, and containing communism in South East Asia, that partly explained New Zealand’s presence there. The Prime Minister  had to balance this objective with the country’s existing and ongoing military commitment to the Malayan Emergency. The number of New Zealand combatants was kept to a minimum, while also meeting the expectations of the USA and Australia, New Zealand’s partners in the ANZUS defence treaty.

Anti Vietnam war demonstration, Early 1970s, Wellington. Ans Westra. Purchased 1993 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. Te Papa

Anti Vietnam war demonstration, Early 1970s, Wellington. Ans Westra. Purchased 1993 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. Te Papa

Protests escalated as Holyoake responded to increased pressure from the United State by expanding New Zealand’s military commitment in 1967. Photographer Ans Westra documented many of the street protests that demonstrated this growing opposition to the war, and New Zealand’s involvement in it, including the image shown above.

Read more about the broad diplomatic context of New Zealand and the Vietnam War on the exhibition website: Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa.

There are also further details about the war on NZHistory.net.nz and a related website dedicated to memories of New Zealand and the Vietnam War

Reference:

Roberto Rabel, ‘’Vietnam War’, in Ian MacGibbon, ed., The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History, Oxford, 2000.

By Kirstie Ross | Posted in Collections Online, History, Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa | Also tagged , , , , | Comments (0)

December 1972: This month last century

21 December 2011 – 2.52pm

Thirty-nine years ago, the last New Zealand forces withdraw from Vietnam (22 December 1972)

New Zealand combat troops were in Vietnam from 1965 until 1972. This military support was underpinned by New Zealand’s defence obligations to the USA, an ANZUS treaty partner from 1951.

Fewer than 4000 New Zealanders were in Vietnam over this period of seven-and-a-half years. It was New Zealand’s longest war, yet the number of people involved in it was minimal compared to the two world wars.

Official political support remained consistent for the duration of the war, until the election of Norman Kirk’s Labour Government in 1972. Beyond political, diplomatic, and military circles, the war had increasingly generated heated public debate. One of the questions asked was: did the USA have the right to intervene in Vietnam, in what essentially was a civil war?

Protest flag, 1967, Wellington. Jeremy Lowe. Gift of Jeremy Lowe, 2007. Te Papa

Protest flag, 1967, Wellington. Jeremy Lowe. Gift of Jeremy Lowe, 2007. Te Papa

Like advocates of civil and human rights, opponents to the war were not afraid to make their views visible in public through demonstrations. The flag pictured above was made and used in a protest by Jeremy Lowe, a member of the Committee on Vietnam, in 1967. The image below shows anti-Vietnam War protesters, one of a number taken by photographer Ans Westra.

Anti Vietnam war demonstration, Early 1970s, Wellington. Ans Westra. Purchased 1993 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. Te Papa

Anti Vietnam war demonstration, Early 1970s, Wellington. Ans Westra. Purchased 1993 with New Zealand Lottery Grants Board funds. Te Papa

However, historian Roberto Rabel notes:

‘the debate precipitated by the Vietnam War was not merely about a tragic conflict in a distant Asian country or the correctness about American policy, but brought to prominence competing visions of the role New Zealand should play in the world’. (Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History, p. 564).

In the 1980s, a nuclear-free vision would pose a serious threat to New Zealand’s ally, the USA.

Badge, ’ANZUS’, 1980s, New Zealand. Maker unknown. Gift of Anne Else, 2004. Te Papa

Badge, ’ANZUS’, 1980s, New Zealand. Maker unknown. Gift of Anne Else, 2004. Te Papa

Find more details about the Vietnam War, including its details, on New Zealand History Online (nzhistory.net.nz).

Visit the Ministry for Culture and Heritage’s website dedicated to the memory of New Zealand and the Vietnam War.

Read more about New Zealand’s late 20th century international relations and foreign policy, on the Slice of Heaven mini-site.

By Kirstie Ross | Posted in Collections Online, Exhibitions, History, Slice of Heaven: 20th Century Aotearoa | Also tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
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