australian television information archive

Vietnam

Produced by Kennedy Miller

Producers: Terry Hayes, Doug Mitchell, George Miller
Associate Producer: Barbara Gibbs
Story: John Duigan, Terry Hayes, Chris Noonan, Francine Finnane, Philip Noyce
Screenplay: Chris Noonan, Terry Hayes, John Duigan
Directors: Chris Noonan, John Duigan
Music: William Motzing

Aired: February 23 - 26, 1987 (Ten)

Vietnam is a stunningly powerful re-enactment of the bitterly controversial issue of Australia's involvement in what was perceived as an American war. Twelve thousand young Australians were conscripted to Vietnam. Five hundred never returned. On television, terrible images of war were impossible to ignore — in the beginning, few voices protested, but as the war worsened and casualties increased things began to change. The arrival of conscription into the lives of ordinary Australians changed families forever, Vietnam tells the story of one such family, the Goddards, a family at war and about to be torn apart.