The spark that lit the fire of anti-war protest

In 1858–86, France defeated Vietnam and China to secure control over Vietnam and the Indochina region. In 1945, a general uprising brought Ho Chi Minh’s nationalist Viet Minh into power in Hanoi. Ho Chi Minh proclaimed all of Vietnam an independent republic. But France claimed itself the legal ruler of Vietnam and attempted, unsuccessfully, to defeat the Viet Minh militarily. 

From the mid-1950s, the United States provided financial, military and political support to the anti-communist and Catholic south. Civil war between north and south was waged by various proxy military forces. Peace talks in 1954 established a demarcation line between the Viet Minh-held north and the south, and agreed that an international commission would supervise free, nationwide elections in 1956. With the Viet Minh likely to win, South Vietnam refused to participate.

The New Zealand Government supported the US. In 1964, it sent a team of non-combat army engineers to Vietnam and, in 1967, a military medical team. In February 1965, the US bombed North Vietnam, accelerating the war.

In Wellington, the peace march by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND)  in 1965 coincided with the visit of the US Ambassador to South Vietnam. CND members marched to Parliament, their banners demanding “Vietnam – negotiate now”, calling for New Zealand to withdraw its engineers from Vietnam. When someone suggested they march to the US Ambassador’s hotel, ’this was the spark that lit the fire’ of anti-war protest. (Claire Loftus Nelson, Long Time Passing: New Zealand Memories of the Vietnam War. Wellington: National Radio, 1990.)

In May 1965, under pressure from the US and Australia, Prime Minister Keith Holyoake announced that a 120-man artillery battery would go to Vietnam. This fueled the fire for years of protest against the war and New Zealand’s part in it.

The protest movement churned out publications and mounted demonstrations, silent vigils, hunger strikes, street theatre, film festivals and teach-ins to highlight what had not been presented to the New Zealand people.

People also learned of US involvement in installations in New Zealand that probably furthered American military policy. Protesters targeted the proposed Omega navigation station near Timaru, project Longbank near Blenheim, Mount John observatory near Tekapo, Operation Deep Freeze in Christchurch and Black Birch observatory in Marlborough.

Two hours after being sworn in as Prime Minister in 1972, Norman Kirk confirmed ‘the severance of New Zealand military involvement in Vietnam’, to be replaced with civil aid. The last New Zealand troops were withdrawn from Vietnam on 22 December 1972.

3,890 New Zealand soldiers had served in Vietnam. 187 were wounded. 35 were killed.

Refusing to take part – New Zealand’s Military Service Act required all males to register for military service within two weeks of turning 19. Opposition to conscription was seen as an effective way to protest against the war.

The Organisation to Halt Military Service (OHMS)was launched in 1972. Over nine months, its actions disrupted the conscription system. From 1970 to 1972, three men were jailed for refusing to undertake national military service. On becoming Prime Minister, Kirk ended compulsory national military service.

Supporting Vietnamese prisoners of conscience — In South Vietnam, people were incarcerated for opposing the war. In 1973, Release all Vietnamese Prisoners of Conscience (RAVPOC) was formed in New Zealand to press for the release of these political prisoners. Each RAVPOC member ‘adopted’ a prisoner and wore a wristband bearing their name. Several lived in a ‘tiger cage’ on the back of a truck for three days to mark an international week of action on the issue.