Apology to Vietnam Veterans 2 - New Zealand - John Key

New Zealand Government's Apology to Vietnam Veterans - John Key:

Originally uploaded on Sep 8, 2008 http://www.youtube.com/user/nzheraldtv

"I arise to today to support the apology from the Crown and to offer the gratitude and thanks . . . to those New Zealanders who served in the then Republic of Vietnam. Also, for our apologies to them and their families for the failure of the Crown to properly acknowledge or address the results of their service in the toxic environment in Vietnam. . . . New Zealand has not treated these veterans well. The service they carried out in the name of the history has often gone unacknowledged or been conveniently forgotten. At times some people have showed outright hostility toward them. More often the personal legacies of their service, both them and their families, was ignored or denied. They have had to suffer the indignity of two reports, the Reeves Report and the McLoud Report both of which reached conclusions that all veterans knew to be wrong. These reports were factually incorrect, fatally flawed, and deeply offensive to many veterans. I wish to state for the record that National Riggslaw report is a basis for policy making now or in the future. In 2004 Parliament's Health Select Committee finally acknowledged what had long been denied that New Zealand personal serving in Vietnam had been exposed to a toxic environment and that that toxic environment had had as detrimental effect on the health of those veterans and on the health of their children. . . . Veterans and their families are here to receive a formal apology for venomous treatment. But they are also here to remember and commemorate New Zealand's role in a difficult war and to allow us as a country to finally say, 'Thank you' to those who served when called upon. . . . Vietnam was a war that divided New Zealand and the period was one of bitter sentiment from some toward those who served. But the New Zealanders who were asked to serve in this war were not responsible for decisions taken for the politicians at the time, and they should not have been treated as though they were. . . . We finally, 'Say Sorry.' New Zealand had a responsibility to these people, though, asked by their country to do a dangerous job, and they did so with honor and dignity. The treatment they received both in Vietnam and in the years after they returned to New Zealand was unfair and unacceptable. I hope that this apology and acceptance finally that New Zealander were exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam will go some way to making up for our previous failings."

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Agent Orange
• American Vietnam Veterans
• Australian Vietnam Veterans
• Dioxin
• New Zealand Vietnam Veterans
• Vietnam Veterans