Gollings, Ian John (Lieutenant Colonel, b.1935)

Collection relating to the Vietnam War service of 61097 Captain (later Lieutenant Colonel) Ian John Gollings, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam, 1962-1963. Gollings was among the first contingent of 30 experienced soldiers selected for the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV). They arrived in Saigon in August 1962 and, working alongside the United States Military Assistance Advisory Group, were tasked with training South Vietnamese soldiers in jungle warfare, village defence, and counter-insurgency. Gollings was an experienced captain, having seen operational service in the Malayan Emergency, and was serving with the Special Air Service at the time he was posted to the AATTV. He was sent to Hiep Khanh and for sixteen months trained soldiers of the Civil Guard, returning to Australia in December 1963.

The collection consists of the transcripts of three open letters of propaganda circulated by the People's Liberation Front (the Viet Cong) in circa 1962-1963. The letters were intended for the soldiers serving in the Army of the Republic of (South) Vietnam or their relatives, warning them that the South Vietnamese government is "a very savage regime" that is trying to "terrorise our people". The Liberation Front, one transcript implores, "understands your big sorrows" and is "always ready to receive you". One transcript discusses the bombardment of Tan Son Nhat airport and downtown Saigon by a South Vietnamese pilot in April 1963, derides the "weakness" of South Vietnamese president, Ngo Dinh Diem, and claims that Diem and the American "invasion" are trying to "massacre the southern people".