Dear reader, you will be doubtless shocked that the government of North Vietnam acted without notice and cancelled the upcoming Long Tan fiftieth anniversary commemoration.
All of us proud sons and daughters of Anzac will be reeling that once again a communist oligarchy has eshewed the principles of clean living, noble sacrifice, and glory, for a cheap political stunt!. Once again, the Viet Cong, have broken a promise and dudded a show. And we now know from the highest ranks of RSL-dom that the long term ramifications will be severe.
‘the eternal sacrifice of aussie male-dom that shall forever shine as our talisman for obedience to the clarion call of God. King an Country’, Stunningly evoked in this Life-like diorama.
How could they do this? Have they no compassion. All we asked for was a discrete little ceremony. Perhaps a thousand odd veterans, the usual gaggle of pollies, and the new defence minister, (whoever she is), sharing a photo op a little bit different from the one we’re used to in France or further up the Burma Thai railway. We’d been working on this for eighteen months. And then just at the very last moment. Bang! Or as we used to say as kiddies in the sixties, “Po- Ha”, cos we reckoned that was BANG in Mandarin. It was written in big letters on the hapenny bungers, from China, (even then we were trading with the Chinese whilst we knew they were keeping the Viet Cong supplied). It was going to be quite a shindig at Long Tan. The fiftieth! Some of the boys had never been back and were so looking forward to it.
They, (the commies) just pulled the plug. Just like the wowsers pulled the plug on crackers for Guy Fawkes, and replaced it with the sanitized grafted schmalzdom of Hallow- fucking- ween.
Col Joye and Litlle Pattie chat to a digger moments before the Viet Cong ruined the show the first time round.
It was meant to be just another discrete little function, Not quite as big as the one we have in Gallipoli in remembrance of the eternal sacrifice of aussie male-dom that shall forever shine as our talisman for obedience to the clarion call of God. King an Country, but something a sort of bit in between. Say just a few dozen busses, families, marquees, several bands, the official party, the wreath-layers, speakers, a light show, some fireworks, and all those people dressed and draped in aussie flags. Then halfway through this discrete little ceremony Little Pattie was to descend in a chopper. A Huey, just like we used at Nui Dat, and do a few numbers. It was rumoured that Col Joye might turn up and an outside chance that she’d be joined on the stage by Normie Rowe. But it’s all over now.
Those Viet Cong put the kibosh on the whole lot, as if it’s their country, and they have no respect for the glorious role we played in giving them the gift of napalm, agent orange and mass slaughter to keep them free.
Ungrateful! That’s it in a nutshell. Sheer bloody mindedness. Problem is that they, ( the Viet Cong) just don’t understand the aussie traditions of mateship and sacrifice. WE want to celebrate Long Tan, cos though we lost the war, this was a mighty victory. Some twenty odd diggers copped it, and others were wounded. They say that upwards of over two hundred and fifty Viet Cong were knocked off, but ‘they’ can’t be sure. That’s the trouble with a non cricketing nation, they never keep accurate scores. But the scoreboard proves this-un was a decisive victory. And more profound than what we later went on to achieve in Afghanistan, Iraq, and now Syria. This one actually took place on a spot. Bit like Gallipoli, and that’s worthy of commemoration itself.
Long Tan. How it all started. These Viet Cong kids tried to get into the show for free.
They just don’t understand. And they’ve made a big mistake. Probably got no sense of history. I know it is actually their country, but Aussie Blood was spilt here. In time we’ll be mates.
Sadly, they have no word for mateship in Vietnamese. Spose that’s why they’ve knocked us back. It’s lost in translation.