The sharp end: witnessess of Vietnam

The first major documentary to look at the Vietnam War from the Australian point of view. The documentary takes the perspective of what it was actually like to be in Vietnam through the eyes and voices of Australian servicemen, correspondents, doctors, nurses, priests and the families at home as they relive their experiences and emotions. The programme draws on events and places which are common to and embedded in the psyche of virtually all Australians involved in Vietnam during the period 1962 to 1973. Some of these Australians give testimony to the human dimension while documentary film and television footage and photographs produced during that decade, contribute supporting evidence. The recollections of those interviewed - fifty in all- is an unofficial history of the war, each a slice of life, a cross section of individual experiences and stories which culminate in a picture of what it was like to be in South Vietnam - an Australian picture.