The Will to Care: The New Zealand Army Nurses and the Vietnam War 1967-1971

Abstract

The Vietnam War was one of the longest twentieth century wars to which New Zealand contributed military personnel. Although why and how New Zealand participated in this war from 1964 - 1972 remains controversial, nine Royal New Zealand Nursing Corps nurses (or New Zealand Army nurses) served in the Vietnam War as part of New Zealand’s military contribution. Consequently, these nurses found themselves both participating in and witnessing this war. Yet the nurses’ experiences and thoughts concerning their involvement, work and life during the war are given only the briefest mentions in the historical writings regarding the Vietnam War. This thesis reports on research examining the experiences of the New Zealand Army nurses who served as part of the Australian Eight Field Ambulance (8 (AS) Fd Amb) and Australian First Field Hospital (1 (AS) Fd Hosp) medical team in the Vietnam War. Oral history interviews with six of these nurses explored these nurses’ experiences before, during and after the war. To facilitate drawing their testimonies into one narrative, additional information and data from military veterans, books, journals, magazines, newspapers, military archival documents and military doctrine and publications were used. The testimonies of the nurses were thematically analysed to reveal the account of their experiences within the Vietnam War. The nurses’ day-to-day challenges of working and living within a war environment included caring around the clock for soldiers with medical and surgical conditions, while also nursing prisoners of war. Their experiences revealed the multiple functions of alcohol and cigarettes in war and the roles of family and support people in New Zealand. A major theme to emerge was the nurses’ feelings of cultural isolation while serving in Vietnam. The nurses spoke of the importance of establishing relationships with other New Zealanders serving in Vietnam to mitigate the cultural isolation they experienced. The personal impact experienced by the nurses who served in the Vietnam War involved many memorable experiences and also some experiences of post-traumatic stress disorder. Recommendations from this research include the need for better orientation to war, sending nurses in groups of two or more when serving in a combat environment, and providing support on their return home.