Responses in New Zealand to the Vietnam War : a case study of the Palmerston North community : a thesis in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in History at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
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Date
2020
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Massey University
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Abstract
This research has studied Palmerston North as a case study to measure community responses to the Vietnam War and has established that the Palmerston North community responses are a fair representation of the wider community of New Zealand. This research conducted original interviews with soldiers, protesters and civilians of Palmerston North to compare and contrast their responses. Historiography has previously focused on soldier and protester narratives. This research in exploring the civilian narrative as well as the soldier and protester narrative has provided a balanced and evaluative history. This research suggests that collective memories have developed from the individual experiences from all three groups. As such the collective memory of soldiers’ is one of betrayal, the protesters’ collective memory has been validated by the withdrawal of New Zealand’s military contribution in Vietnam, whereas the civilians were not directly impacted by the Vietnam War and view the war retrospectively as a tragedy.