Medical Intervention: Service and civilian medics
Mine injuries were very frequent. People with blown-off feet and legs, shrapnel from shelling, splinters of steel flinging about, rifles and machine guns.
Campbell Maclaurin, Civilian Surgical Team
The provincial medical effort in South Vietnam bookends New Zealand’s involvement in the war. In 1963, United States pressure for a show of faith in the escalating war coincided with a growing protest movement. Up for re-election, Prime Minister Keith Holyoake attempted to please both sides by dispatching a civilian surgical team under the Colombo Plan.[1] Its members were among the last to leave when Saigon fell to North Vietnam in 1975.
When 1 New Zealand Services Medical Team set up camp at Bong Son, 100 kilometres north of the civilian team, in May 1967, the facilities awaiting them were basic. The hospital building had room for 20 patients, with another 80 housed in tents. ‘The room used for amputations also hosted casualty and outpatient consultations. Water and electricity supplies were erratic. Surgical procedures routinely halted mid-flow, in darkness, while the antiquated diesel generator was revived’.[2] A new hospital, begun in 1967 and finally opened in 1969, provided improved facilities, though there were maintenance difficulties. As always, the Kiwis were resourceful: at Phu My a medic enlisted a captive enemy labour force to erect a new dispensary.[3]
Related content
Want to find out more about New Zealand medical services in Vietnam? Click on the images below to access related written, audio, and video content:
NZ's Vietnam War - Medical Support
Letters from Vietnam - David Morris
1st Australian Field Hospital - Chris Stock
Infantry operations - John 'Doc' Mountain' interview
NZ VietNam Health Trust - George Gordon interview
Service as a medic - Colin Whyte interview
Memories of Margaret Neave
NZ medical staff in Qui Nhon - Film
[1] New Zealand insisted on it being regarded as a Colombo Plan operation so the South Vietnamese would meet part of the in-country costs, but it was ultimately a United States Operations Mission scheme
[2] Billy Barnz, Voices from Vietnam: The stories of New Zealanders who served their country in the Vietnam War, Willson Scott Publishing, 2008
[3] Ian McGibbon, New Zealand's Vietnam War, Exisle Publishing, 2010, p. 341
