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Contact: Australians in Vietnam
- GenresMilitary History
147 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
2 people want to read
About the author
Lex McAulay
89 books4 followersAlexander "Lex" Hugh David McAulay was an Australian Army serviceman and veteran of the Vietnam War. He authored a dozen books, including six on World War II.
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November 7, 2021
McAuley has written several seminal texts on the Australian war in Vietnam, most notably the first major studies of the Battle of Long Tan and the Battles of Balmoral and Coral. This 1989 release followed in the footsteps of these earlier publications, and sadly it is a relatively shallow book that doesn't have the substance one would hope. Considering how well portrayed the war was nominally presented on the television, one would've expected a large body of still photographs. However, as McAuley says in his introduction, the then Australian War Memorial collection was very limited.
So what is the value of this book? It does provide a useful illustrated introduction of the experiences of Australian service personnel during the war, however there must be better, more detailed books that have been published since 'Contact...'. There are some interesting additional annotations, such as the listing of all operations mounted by Australian army forces, and the honour roll at the end of the book is also of some interest.
It seems a rather unintentioned end result of reading this book that there was just as much focus on non-operational activities for Australian service personnel in the war as there was being engaged in military operations. The paucity of photos that show the actions of the troops in the field, patrolling and fighting against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army, has created this (obviously incorrect) impression. Equipment and facilities, such as Caribou aircraft or the logistic base building in Vung Tau, are perhaps just as well documented if not better than the combat activities of Australian soldiers.
In conclusion, 'Contact: Australians in Vietnam' is a reasonable book, but hopefully better titles or more developed pictorial resources are now available, supplanting McAuley's work.
So what is the value of this book? It does provide a useful illustrated introduction of the experiences of Australian service personnel during the war, however there must be better, more detailed books that have been published since 'Contact...'. There are some interesting additional annotations, such as the listing of all operations mounted by Australian army forces, and the honour roll at the end of the book is also of some interest.
It seems a rather unintentioned end result of reading this book that there was just as much focus on non-operational activities for Australian service personnel in the war as there was being engaged in military operations. The paucity of photos that show the actions of the troops in the field, patrolling and fighting against the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army, has created this (obviously incorrect) impression. Equipment and facilities, such as Caribou aircraft or the logistic base building in Vung Tau, are perhaps just as well documented if not better than the combat activities of Australian soldiers.
In conclusion, 'Contact: Australians in Vietnam' is a reasonable book, but hopefully better titles or more developed pictorial resources are now available, supplanting McAuley's work.
Displaying 1 of 1 review