Some reflections on conscription, the Vietnam war and university students

This year (2023) is the 50th anniversary of the ending of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Given that some of the class of 71 had marbles in the conscription lottery that commenced in 1964, this anniversary has rekindled memories of so many ghastly political decisions that directly affected some of us.

On the same day that the ABCTV began a series entitled “Our Vietnam War”, Jim Scott sent me articles by Rowan Cahill (1995) and Brandan Clothier (2019).

I was one of the lucky ones whose marble was not drawn. Even if your (birthday) marble was drawn, Rowan Cahill cites a book chapter that explains that only a small proportion of those whose birth dates were drawn were actually called up. If you were called up, there were some bizarre escape clauses, at least for the immediate future: I had forgotten that undergrads who were called up were allowed to continue their studies as long as they passed all subjects!

If you failed even just one subject, or weren’t fortunate enough to be attending university, your number was well and truly up.

Rowan makes several telling points, including the fact that 20-year-olds were then not old enough to vote, and yet were old enough to die for their country! As retold in the first episode of “Our Vietnam War”, the first conscript to die in Vietnam actually died from friendly fire!

Rowan also tells of the legal argument made against his claim of conscientious objection to killing other humans, namely that "Apparently as a carnivore I sanctioned the taking of life in a de facto way, regardless of the fact that I was not an eater of human meat"!

His first-hand experience of how the law works is very concerning. Whenever I get the chance, I argue that the single greatest step to improve democracy and the rule of law would be to abolish school debating! Why? Because school debating rewards speakers for winning an argument, even if they know the winning argument is morally bankrupt! And top school debaters are often regarded as having great potential as lawyers and/or politicians.

Brandon Clothier tells an equally concerning story. I had not realised, for example, that in the lead-up to WW1, conscription resulted in "all eligible Sydney University undergraduates" joining the Sydney University Scouts (later to become the Sydney University Regiment), 60% of whom headed off to war.

The circumstances leading up to Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War were, of course, complex. Australia had learnt during WW2 that when push came to shove, mother England could desert us. And when we were in drastic need of help to repulse the Japanese attacks on Darwin, it was the USA that came to our rescue. But did these realities justify us going “all the way with LBJ”?