Encounters with two Vietnamese men shaped by war raise an uncomfortable question for Australia’s older, wealthier generation: what are our priorities now?

Growing up, the Vietnam War was on the black-and-white TV, largely incomprehensible to this 5-12-year old (1966, and Long Tan, through to 1973, Whitlam and withdrawal).

What wasn’t so hard for a kid to work out was the level of distrust, if not outright hatred in our happy, well-off suburb.

The Vietnamese were indistinguishable from the Chinese or Japanese or anyone else north of Darwin, it seemed. They were “the hordes” referred to in unprintable terms, both adjective and noun.

At the same time, another kid, only slightly older, was growing up next to the Australian base at Nui Dat. He didn’t need a TV to see what was happening, losing his elder brother in the celebrated Battle of Long Tan.

“What had the Australians been like?” I asked the now 69-year-old last week through tour guide Kim Colbie.

Good, inasmuch as their generosity with medicines and kindness to little kids.

Bad, in that civilians were killed if they happened to stray near the operational hub for the first Australian Task Force.

It didn’t seem appropriate to dig........

© Pearls and Irritations