Historical accounts and memoirs of the Vietnam War often ignore the
participation of nations other than Vietnam and the United States. As a
result, few Americans realize that several members of the Southeast
Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO), including Australia, allied with
South Vietnam during the conflict. By the late 1960s, more than eight
thousand Australians were deployed in the region or providing support to
the forces there.
In Team 19 in Vietnam, David Millie offers an insightful account of
his twelve-month tour with the renowned Australian Army Training Team
Vietnam in Quang Tri Province -- a crucial tactical site along the
demilitarized zone that was North Vietnam's gateway to the south.
Drawing from published and unpublished military documents, his personal
diary, and the letters he wrote while deployed, Millie introduces
readers to the daily routines, actions, and disappointments of a field
staff officer. He discusses his interactions with province senior
advisor Colonel Harley F. Mooney and Major John Shalikashvili, who would
later become chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff. This firsthand
narrative vividly demonstrates the importance of the region and the
substantial number of forces engaged there.
Few Australian accounts of the Vietnam War exist, and Millie offers a
rare glimpse into the year after the Tet offensive, when Presidents
Johnson and Nixon both made it clear that the U.S. would withdraw its
troops. This important memoir reveals that responsibility for the
catastrophe inflicted on Vietnamese civilians is shared by an
international community that failed to act effectively in the face of a
crisis., reviewing a previous edition or volume
