Ashley Ekins

This is the third (and final) volume in the Officially sponsored series describing Australian Army operations in Vietnam. Approximately one third comprises appendixes. As with previous volumes, the 'Official' status does not mean the that writer holds back from criticism or personal viewpoints. The author (essentially this means Ekins, as McNeill died fairly early in the preparation of this volume) concludes that the Australian involvement in Vietnam was ill considered, in that the success (and failure) of the mission depended upon much more than military operations. Ekins notes that the political and social aspects of the mission had very little hope of success from the start, even if more resources had been poured into them. In this he steers clear of controversy, and avoids making any conclusion in respect of the argument that the Vietnam War 'bought time' for other South East Asian countries to stabilise and develop. He also avoids any direct reference to Iraq or Afghanistan, although the implications are clear. This is a massive book, weighing just over 2kg. The spine is traditionally bound, the paper is of the highest quality and there are numerous black and white and color photographs throughout. The first of this three volume set commands very high prices as it is now out of print. It is unclear whether this volume with also become very rare. The $100 Australian dollar price tag will not encourage stockists (or casual purchasers), and I would strongly suspect that at that price it is actually losing money for the publisher. This volume concludes the nine volume official history set (additional volumes covering naval, air force, medical and political aspects of Vietnam and other S E Asian conflicts involving Australia).… (meer)