Michael Shackleton - Operation Vietnam: A New Zealand Surgical First

T he year was 1963, a momentous and defining one for the USA and for Vietnam, with the overthrow and murder of Diem and his brother, Nhu, and three weeks later the assassination of President Kennedy. The two events were to have a profound effect on the people and the politicians of America and South-East Asia for the next twelve years and beyond. In that context, the establishment of a New Zealand Surgical Unit in South Vietnam in the same year, 1963, may seem a very minor segment of history, but it represented a significant contribution by New Zealand which lasted until the American withdrawal in 1975. For us and for the other members of the pioneer team it was a major event in our lives: it influenced our subsequent careers, and gave us some appreciation of the major conflict that evolved in Vietnam. There are, I hope, some aspects of this very personal story which will be of interest in giving an insight into the peculiarly New Zealand way some diplomatic policies were conducted and the equally distinctive way it could all somehow be made to succeed.

In a letter dated 12 June 1962, from the Secretary of External Affairs, A. D. Mcintosh, to the Minister of External Affairs, the Right Honourable K. J. Holyoake, a proposal for the provision of medical units for South Vietnam was outlined (see Appendix 1). The Americans had made the first approach in May when they indicated they were building and equipping surgical units at hospitals sited in the provincial capitals. Because the Vietnamese were unable to staff these units, it was hoped foreign medical teams could help. The teams would work for the benefit of the civilian population and be under the direction of the Ministry of Health, South Vietnam. It was further proposed that this assistance could be given under the Colombo Plan as the basis for some Vietnamese involvement, while payment of salaries, fares and allowances would be undertaken by New Zealand as the donor nation.

The ANZUS pact signed in 1951 formed a major part of New Zealand's defence policy and overseas political allegiance. The USA was to be our protector from communist aggression, replacing the British connection with South-East Asia, which became so diminished after the fall of Singapore in 1942. It was through the ANZUS Council, which Prime Minister Keith Holyoake had attended early in 1962, that the Americans broached the medical team concept. The other important segment of New Zealand's overseas commitment was the Colombo Plan, set up in 1950. Originally a Commonwealth partnership, it was later broadened to include the USA, Burma, Thailand, and Vietnam, along with other Asian nations. The aims were an improvement of living conditions in underdeveloped countries by providing economic assistance, to prevent, if possible, the growth of communism.

This in essence was the starting point for one of the most ambitious aid projects undertaken by New Zealand up to that time. It was to be an up-front practical commitment from the smallest partner in ANZUS to come to the assistance of the largest and most powerful partner: a real demonstration of solidarity, and not too outlandish in its scope. Or so it may have seemed to the original organisers from the External Affairs Department. The formula proposed by the Americans for the team composition was a surgeon, a general practitioner, two nurses, a lab technician, and an anaesthetist. I was not involved in the initial recruitment of the team, most of whom were either out of New Zealand or already nominated. Our family's participation was in the nature of a rescue package when the original surgeon became unavailable at the last moment. It explains, in large measure, why our departure became such a precipitate affair, and our physical and mental preparation condensed into a few days of hectic activity. We had time to read, with only partial comprehension, two articles which had appeared in the