Acknowledging a Former Ally: Australia's Recognition of South Vietnamese Military Service

How did war veterans from South Vietnam resettle in Australia following the end of the Vietnam War, and how did Australia respond to military personnel who had served a former ally and became refugees in the postwar years? This article examines Australia's formal acknowledgement of South Vietnamese veterans and the controversies that arose in the Australian Parliament over this issue in 1985–1986. It draws on a wide range of archival sources and government documents in the National Archives of Australia and the National Library of Australia as well as a major national oral history collection. The archival record not only reflects on attitudes from both sides of politics towards the Vietnam War and the Vietnamese refugees that followed in the aftermath of the war but also on the ways in which Australia dealt with a significant refugee community and specifically the war veterans in that community. The oral histories reveal that Australia's recognition of the war service of South Vietnamese veterans made an important contribution to the transition of the veterans and their families to a sense of belonging in Australia and new identities as Vietnamese Australians.