Vietnam War at top of ACT list of Australia's most significant historic events

The Vietnam War, Australia's longest conflict until recently and the first to be televised in its living rooms, still resonates with the veteran now living in Canberra.

Long after the war ended with the evacuation of Americans and South Vietnamese people from Saigon, Australians and particularly Canberrans also regard it as among the most important historic chapters in their lifetimes.

A new study by the Social Research Centre, an ANU subsidiary, shows that of the events people believed had the greatest effect on the country during their lives, the Vietnam War ranked first in the ACT and seventh across the nation.

Mr Aaron was 27 when he sailed to Vietnam with the navy, having to leave his wife to look after their young daughter.

In 2017 he travelled from his Kambah home and returned to the country for the first time wondering how he would be received, and how it was faring.

This time, five decades later, he brought his younger daughter along on a trip that resolved some matters that weighed on his conscience, namely the effect on civilians of the Australian navy's heavy bombardment of targets in the country's north.

"By God, it took a load off my shoulders," he said.

The Vietnamese were friendly with him, and when one man introduced his own father, a former enemy fighter, the two posed for a photo together.

"Before then, when we hugged, we were crying," Mr Aaron said.

"That was a moment in my life, a turnaround too."

The Social Research Centre found Baby Boomers were more likely to rank the war, along with the Apollo 11 moon landing and defining 1970s events, as the most significant in their lives. Younger generations ranked terrorism higher, as well as Australia's leaps in social reforms.

Nationally, the same-sex marriage survey result ranked first, nominated by 30 per cent of people in a result possibly also influenced by the research's timing.

The September 11 terrorist attack (27 per cent), the national apology to the Stolen Generations, the Port Arthur massacre (each 13 per cent) and the Sydney Olympics (12 per cent) were others in the top five.

Canberrans were more likely to rank political and economic events - including the arrival of the GST, the Global Financial Crisis, and the Whitlam dismissal - higher on their list. The ACT was also the only state or territory to rank the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency in its top 10.

Frank Bongiorno, a researcher for the study, said some major historic changes were notable by their absence. The arrival of the contraceptive pill, and the end of the Cold War, didn't make the top 10. Environmental controversies like the Franklin Dam dispute were also forgotten.

There were clear differences across generations. Those born before 1946 - known as the Silent Generation - ranked World War II as the most significant event and often mentioned Queen Elizabeth II's coronation and visits. SRC chief executive Darren Pennay said among people born between 1946 and 1964, the Vietnam War had left a mark.

"For people who lived in that time, particularly Baby Boomers, apart from the war and anti-war protests there was the fear of being conscripted."

Greg Kennett was conscripted into the national service and arrived in Vietnam in 1969 aged 21, and remembers vividly both the war, and Australia's response to it afterwards.

"It was a very tumultuous part in our history, it was very divided," he said.

"I had friends and family members who didn't really congratulate me on my service in Vietnam, and that was very hard to take.

"When we came back from Vietnam, we didn't really let people know we were Vietnam veterans."

RSLs didn't recognise services personnel returning from the country as having fought in a war, and veterans of the conflict were discouraged from joining.

Another Canberra-based Vietnam War veteran, Peter Dinham, said he still believed the reasons Australia entered the war were noble, although added people would differ in their opinions.

He said on a recent trip to Vietnam he was told by a guide that a senior adviser in the South Vietnamese regime was in fact a North Vietnamese agent, totally unknown to the South Vietnamese.

Once the American military had withdrawn, South Vietnam stood no chance in fighting off the communist north, the guide told Mr Dinham.

Mr Kennett, like Mr Aaron and many other veterans, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He went years without seeing most of the men he served with, before the 1987 Welcome Home Parade rekindled friendships and helped the nation better understand its Vietnam veterans' contributions.

Some had already died, either by suicide or alcohol abuse. Those who survived in Mr Kennett's platoon have since met at reunions for 15 years.

Along with Mr Dinham and Mr Aaron, Mr Kennett is a member of the Woden Valley RSL sub-branch, one of the most active in the region, and many veterans have become part of the RSL community since the war.

"Things have changed. The Australian perception of the war and veterans has changed. We're accepted as veterans, we're respected," Mr Kennett said.