Veteran returns medals as protest grows over looming war
By Malcolm Brown
January 27 2003
Seeking very good reasons ... a Vietnam veteran, Bob McLeod, is protesting
at Australia's involvement in the build-up to war in Iraq before the UN has
approved such action. Photo: Trevor Veale
Having served on the coast of Vietnam, Bob McLeod is no stranger to conflict.
But the dispatch of Australian troops to the Gulf has proven the last straw
- he has decided to send his war service medals back to the Australian
Government.
"The glory of the Anzacs is what we learnt about in school," Mr McLeod, 57,
of Dorrigo, said. "Then I went to Vietnam and when I came back people threw
rocks at us and called us baby killers. I was scared to wear my medals."
Now, he said, Australia is rushing in again. "The point I make is not just
that Australia has sold out to America; I feel we have become a crony of
America for undesirable and dishonest reasons."
Mr McLeod, a member of the 32nd Small Ships Squadron, Royal Australian
Engineers, during the Vietnam War, is not alone among veterans who had
considerable doubts about Vietnam and are entirely unconvinced about Iraq.
Many are now speaking out. "I am now handing back my medals," Mr McLeod said.
"I am not saying we should not go to war, I am saying we should make sure
there are very good reasons before we decide to stand and fight."
Mr McLeod, who grew up in Cowra, was called up for national service in 1968.
He served as crew on a 600-tonne landing craft transporting four Centurion
tanks to Vietnam with the engineer's Small Ships.
Mr McLeod has been awarded the National Service, Vietnam Service and
Australian Active Service Medals.
"I am wondering if Howard and Bush understand how appalling it is to send
soldiers to war where they have no right to be there," he said.
"If the UN were to say, 'We must stand up to this country', I would have no
objection to Australians being used. What I am incensed about is that John
Howard is doing what Bob Menzies did, following America in anyway."
Ian Macdonald, of Lane Cove, opposes moves towards war. He served in the
Middle East in World War II, as his father did in World War I. Mr Macdonald
wrote in a letter to the Herald: "He and I went away as AIF volunteers
knowing that there was no option other than submission to defeat by a
powerful enemy.
"This war, if it happens, can in no way be justified by such a premise.
"It is abundantly clear that it is being engineered by a power- and
oil-hungry megalomaniac whose cynical disregard for the consequences defies
comprehension."
http://smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/26/1043533953785.html