Rubbish skips or Posterity?

What to do with your Vietnam Stuff

As the Vietnam War recedes into ancient history and as some of us coincidentally get older, the question arises of what to do with our Vietnam stuff. So much of this material has already been consigned to rubbish skips, and those of us lucky to have descendants know they are waiting like vultures to descend on what’s left to chuck it all out.
Much deserves to be preserved. This appeal is for written or paper-based material. That includes books, diaries, letters, call-up notices, pamphlets, Chieu Hoi and propaganda leaflets, MPC, maps – the whole nine yards.

These things should be sent to a place that will preserve them, catalog them & make them visible and available to future generations.

Your battalion historian runs such a place in Victoria – a specialist military library, rated by the National Library of Australia as a collection of national significance. You can see its extent at www.thecollectingbug.com/rusivictoria/. It includes a remarkable collection on the Vietnam War and 7 RAR in particular. If this suggestion tickles your fancy send me an email at MikeOBrien@bigpond.com & we can get down to details.

Or else, consider sending your stuff to the National Vietnam Veterans Museum, your State Library or the War Memorial.

But do it soon!

Mike O’Brien
7 RAR Historian