Wellington - Nearly 35 years after the last New Zealand troops were withdrawn from the Vietnam War, the government announced Tuesday that it would honour the country's veterans and their families with a dedicated series ofevents called "Tribute 08" next year. "Tribute 08 is about acknowledging those who lost their lives in Vietnam, and the surviving veterans and their families, for their sacrifice in the service of New Zealand," Prime Minister Helen Clark said when she launched the commemoration at parliament.
"Whatever people's views on the Vietnam War, those who served in Vietnam, like other New Zealand soldiers before and after them, undertook their duties bravely, loyally and professionally," she said.
But in a graphic illustration that the war still divides New Zealanders a generation later, about 20 veterans and widows demonstrated outside parliament in protest at their suffering from the herbicide Agent Orange that was widely sprayed in Vietnam to remove jungle cover from the Viet Cong guerrillas.
The demonstrators represented agroup of veterans who insist that a compensation agreement for troops and their families with continuing health problems they attribute to Agent Orange which was negotiated with the government last year is inadequate.
Nearly 4,000 New Zealand troops - all volunteers - served in Vietnam between 1965 and 1972. Thirty-five were killed in action and nearly 200 wounded. Veterans' organisations say about 600 have died since, many from illnesses derived from exposure to Agent Orange.
Defence Minister Phil Goff said that Vietnam veterans had repeatedly complained about the negative response they personally felt on their return to New Zealand.
"A public commemoration acknowledging the service of the veterans and the sacrifices of their families is important even after 40 years to allow a healing process to occur," he said.
