It seems hard to believe that yesterday marked the 50th anniversary of the first Australian combat troops (as opposed to military advisors and the like) leaving for the Vietnam War.
The reason I mention this is that the University of NSW Canberra (ADFA) used the occasion to launch `Australia's Vietnam War' website.
The site is vietnam.unsw.adfa.edu.au and can be accessed as part of a live preview.
Given truth seemed to die even earlier in Vietnam than in most other conflicts, this has to be the place to go whenever arguments over who did what to whom and how and why arise.
The website records the details of all 4665 recorded combat incidents involving Australian and New Zealand troops from the 1st Australian Task Force in Vietnam in the 1960s and '70s.
And, according to the university, "detailed information on every one of these incidents has been uploaded onto an interactive Battle Map. Vietnam veterans can access the details of individual combat incidents they were involved in, and upload their recollections, photographs and other digital material to form an expanding archive of details about the campaign."
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
This is not unlike the remarkable interactive WWI website launched by the National Archives of Australia last year.
"Preliminary access by Vietnam veterans has already prompted a strong response, with several veterans already having uploaded information onto the site about their personal experiences," Dr Bob Hall, Vietnam War veteran and UNSW Canberra Visiting Fellow said.
