Alan Graham Ramsay as an Australian Associated Press correspondent interviewed by Greg Swanborough for 'The sharp end'

Scene 7 Take 1 Roll 1. Atmosphere among the first troops on fast troop carrier HMAS Sydney headed for Vung Tau; HMAS Sydney left in extraordinary secrecy and the route was unknown; Scene 7 Take 2 Roll 2. Dominant recollection was that of a 'boys own club' off to the great adventure; twelve day voyage had a lot of fun shooting at balloons even the journalists joined in target shooting; health classes on Venereal Disease designed to scare to troops; lesson on how to identify the enemy told the Viet Cong (VC) wore black pyjamas and coolie hats- this was essentially the whole population; the long classes and balloon shooting didn't make you think that it was a terribly professional operation; the men on board had no knowledge of the Vietnamese people or culture and none was taught impression that the authorities had no interest in the history or people of Vietnam; most of the correspondents lived in hotels and caught a taxi to the war; describes Bien Hoa airbase where 1RAR were attached to the US 173rd Airborne Brigade and were part of the perimeter security force; after two weeks he was allowed to live on the base; correspondents there were not allowed to wear civilian clothes; purchased military uniforms on the Saigon black market; in 1965 anything could be purchased guns, military equipment anything enormous money made from corruption; Ramsay never carried a gun; he wanted to be seen as journalist and did not wish to be caught as combatant; charged $1 a day for food, given a tent and the right to be there; the correspondents were much better dressed that the Australians since they had US gear; the military were uncomfortable with the media; at the camp there was no hostility at all; the Australians were envious of the 173rd Airborne because they had better gear, were paid more and had better housing; Scene 7 Take 3 Roll 2. Ramsay went to Vietnam aged 27 as a journalist with no great political, philosophical or ideological attitude about the war or why Australia was involved; with the benefit of hindsight believes that Australia should never have gone to Vietnam; the issue of conscription placed divisions and strains upon the society and became the dominant political issue; the way the war was exploited by politicians; believes Harold Holt exploited President Lyndon Johnson's visit in 1966 to win the election; the military is always used by politicians; it was used right through the war; it was quite a useless exercise dominated by the Americans; Australia was just pawns, trotted along quite comfortably as part of the side show; Scene 7 Take 4 Roll 3. Men did not join up to go to Vietnam in 1965; Ramsay interviewed all thirty members of a platoon during an exercise and eighty five percent were there because they wanted to qualify for a war service home loan; that is all Vietnam meant to them and that is what it was like for the soldiers early in the war; the military hated the way the war was run; the Vietnam War was run be the media, they had absolute carte blanche to do whatever they liked and go where ever they liked so long as you had a MACV (Military Assistance Command Vietnam); with a MACV pass you could go anywhere, use any form of transport as long as they had room; you filmed and wrote what you liked, there was no censorship except self imposed censorship; the Australians tried to impose censorship but were limited to retaliatory action afterwards; that made the military uncomfortable and flowed on to the 1991Gulf war where everything was censored; Vietnam was probably the only war where the media essentially ran the war.