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Australian Vet Leader Commits Suicide

By VVAW

The suicide death of Phil Thompson, the 42-year-old Vietnam vet and President of Australia's Vietnam Veterans' Association stirred memories of Vietnam and raised questions about the treatment of Australian Vietnam War memorial and, although the planning for such a moment is underway, no memorial yet exists.

Thompson had been the President of the veterans association for six years; he had recently announced his retirement from the position because of bowel cancer, one of the many symptoms often associated with exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. Many of Thompson's associates said that his suicide was a final protest against the way in which Vietnam vets have been treated in Australia.

The Vietnam Veterans Association is credited with having forced the Australian government to investigate the effects of exposure to Agent Orange on veterans and the setup of a series of Vietnam Veteran Counseling services, similar to the vets' centers in the U.S. All the problems of post-traumatic stress disorder found in U.S. veterans are also common in Australian Vietnam veterans.

Despite a high incidence of things like broken marriages, alcoholism, drug abuse and other difficulties to adjust, Australian Vietnam veterans did not have some of the causes for ptsd often set forth in the U.S. Australian vets were older than U.S. Vietnam troops (some three and a half years older on the average when they went to Vietnam). They went over as units, fought as units, and returned to Australia as units, unlike U.S. troops who came, fought and went home on an individual basis. Australian Vietnam troops, or at least many of them, still belong to associations of their old units and march together regularly on Anzac Day.

The suicide of Phil Thompson serves to underline that the post-traumatic stress problems do not have a simple cause. Perhaps it can also serve as a warning that the problems of Vietnam vets will surface once again if the U.S. government should get us involved in a war without popular support, without the interests of the participants in mind, or a war against a people (such as the Nicaraguan people) determined to remain free and independent.