Camilla Elliott's List: Vietnam War

"The National Service Act 1964 introduced a scheme of selective conscription designed to create an army of 40,000 full-time soldiers. A set of 366 wooden ballot balls was used to decide which 20-year-old males would be called up for National Service. Each of the balls in the 'birthday ballot' represented a date of birth, and nearly 64,000 young men were called up between 1965 and 1972. Many of them were sent on active service to the Vietnam War.
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Video 4 mins 43 secs - Source: This Day Tonight (TV)

"Clip description
Combat cameraman Neil Davis discusses one of the most memorable images of the Vietnam War, when the national police chief shot dead a Vietnamese suspect. Davis tells the full story of how the prisoner was suspected of killing the police chief’s friend, together with his wife and six children.

Curator’s notes
by Damien Parer
A fascinating and little-heard first hand account of the circumstances around one of the most famous images to come out of the Vietnamese war."
Neil Davis was killed in action - Bangkok 1985

Approx 38 videos depicting various aspects of Vietnam War

"Titles tagged with ‘Vietnam War’ - 21 titles - sorted alphabetically"

"Clip description
Former Australian Prime Minister William McMahon says that the US provided full briefings to Australia about the Vietnam War. The Australian presence was viewed as essential to the success of the war.

Vietnam veteran Brian Day says that amongst his fellow veterans there has been an exceptionally high death rate due to cancer and other causes as well as high rates of suicide. US President Lyndon B. Johnson states emphatically that the US and Australia were strong allies who would go 'all the way’ for freedom."

"Originally the tunnels were started during the war against the French, but which were rapidly expanded upon when the American's arrived. They were constructed by volunteer(!) village labourers using simple hoe's and baskets. The Laterite clay in which the tunnels were dug has a dull reddish appearance and dries rock hard during the dry season. During the wet season it is very soft and much easier to work. Because of the very nature of the Laterite clay's ability to dry rock hard it made a very good (if a somewhat difficult substance to work) soil in which to carve out a tunnel. "

"They are the men who served in the Engineer Field Troops in Vietnam (3 Field Troop and 1, 2 and 3 Troop of 1 Field Squadron, Royal Australian Engineers).

We believe our total number is somewhere around 700. For the bulk of the war there were three Troops, each of around 40 men, a total of 120 Tunnel Rats in Vietnam per year, for around five years, making 600, plus the first year when 3 Field Troop alone was there, with about 70 men."

Collection of video resources and support material relating to Vietnam War

"An insight into the life of famous war photojournalist Neil Davis who graphically brought the Vietnam War into Australian lounge rooms and who died tragically during a coup in Thailand, filming his own death in the process."