New Oceanian Power

July 2025 marks the 63rd anniversary of Australia's entry to the Vietnam war. So it was that the legacy of our grandfathers found its way to the fields of Asia where they bravely stood in front of a bloody red ideological tide and said "no". Memorials tell of their sacrifice, and of how their voices were cut short into screams and mixed around in their throats by Vietnamese gunfire.

Once again we rushed our barely-men into the deserts of the Middle-East. This time not to stem but to encourage the unstoppable river. And it did surely flow. Let it never be said that our battles were in vain!

In 2025, Australia invades its neighbours Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands and confirms for the world that Oceania, despite its late arrival, will not at all be free of bloody conquest.

Perhaps what will remain of these wars is a vague sense that some of us did demand for our soldiers to be sent home, our home that was girt by sea.

The Terror of War, June 8 1972