The last New Zealand Army troops who took part in the Vietnam War flew home 47 years ago this month to a country that for the first time failed to put out a welcome-back mat for soldiers who had fought, killed and died in a foreign war.
The bitterly controversial conflict divided the nation and Vietnam veterans flew in at dead of night, were told to take off their uniforms and advised not to tell people where they had been.
The last group of 17 soldiers to leave Vietnam on December 19, 1972 ended the most shameful chapter of New Zealand’s eight-and-a-half-year military commitment to the war.
