[Greens-Media] Vietnam and history

[Manderson, Roland]

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ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey MEDIA RELEASE
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Fri 18 Aug 06



History and Vietnam

ACT Greens MLA Deb Foskey argued that there is no single narrative history as both Vietnam veterans and peace activists of the 1960's would know.

"Many of the Australians who served in Vietnam were treated badly when they returned home, and we mustn't forget what those men and women went through" Dr Foskey said today.

"By the time Whitlam brought the last Australians home, most Australian people felt should never have been there in the first place. That was not the soldiers' fault, it was poor foreign policy."

"The campaign against conscription and Australia's involvement in that war was extremely important socially and politically. In redressing some of the errors of the past we must be careful not make others."

"Unfortunately it looks like the lessons of history - the cost of committing ourselves to wars that are not our concern and making ourselves subservient to the foreign policy of others - is being deliberately erased in John Howard's campaign to have his preferred history taught to all Australian students."

"Finally I would like to support Mr Howard in the apology he has offered for the treatment meted out to men and women who returned from Vietnam."

 "While he is talking about events of thirty or forty years ago, the apology has a considerable social and a personal significance to many people today."

 "Of course, the irony that Prime Minister Howard is not yet prepared to consider an apology to the Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander people of this country is stark."  

"But we shouldn't give up hope for that, as we can see that things may change" Dr Foskey said.


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Roland Manderson   Media Advisor
ACT   Greens    MLA  Deb  Foskey  
Legislative Assembly for the ACT 
ph(02)62050551      m 0412241379
====== www.debfoskey.com ======= 
  
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