Hugh Alexander (Lex) McAulay as a Corporal 1 RAR, later Military Attache Staff Australian Embassy interviewed by Greg Swanborough for 'The sharp end'

Places
Accession Number F10618
Collection type Film
Measurement 29 min 49 sec
Object type To be confirmed
Physical description 16mm/colour (Eastman)/sound
Maker The Notion Picture Company Pty Limited
McAulay, Alexander Hugh
Swanborough, Greg
Place made Australia: Australian Capital Territory, Canberra
Date made 27 May 1992
Access Open
Conflict Period 1990-1999
Vietnam, 1962-1975
Copyright

Item copyright: AWM Licensed copyright

Copying Provisions Copyright restrictions apply. Permission of copyright holder required for any use and/or reproduction.
Description

Roll 20 Scene 7 take 1; feels on leaving Richmond airbase for Vietnam; take 2 retake of 1; leaving Sydney from RAAF Richmond during winter wearing tropical uniforms; felt no apprehension and all were keen to get going; the scene at Richmond with families; newspaper reports of Viet Cong (VC) victories against the Army of the Republic of South Vietnam (ARVN); confident that 1RAR would change the situation; troops very confident they didn’t worry that their boots and clothes were of Second World War vintage; Scene 8 Take 1. initial thoughts on the United States (US) Army 173rd Airborne Brigade; initial reports were that the paratroops were an elite group of soldiers; finding out latter that the paratroops new next to nothing about jungle warfare as the Australians understood it and this led to scathing remarks by the Australians; Commanding Officer of 1RAR put out an order for the men to stop criticising the US troops because it made it difficult for him at briefings when this criticism was raised by the US officers; the difference in style of warfare between the Australians and Americans; Australians used stealth while the US used brute force; both the Australians and the Americans had little knowledge of Vietnamese culture and both were young and arrogant; Australian uniform was drab and blended in with the background while the US uniform had colour patches, names prominent, rank badges and open neck shirts with showing the white T shirts worn underneath and the US habit of placing items such as cigarette packs under their helmet all of which made them visible against the green of the countryside; the set up of the camp at Ben Hoa; The Australians did not use the US symmetrical pattern and the Australian camp was placed on the rearward slope of the hill out of the view of the enemy; Australian view to disturb the local countryside as little as possible while the US would flatten everything leaving mud and dust; initially feed by US cooks and could eat as much as they wanted; disappointment when there own cooks arrived; Scene 8 Take 2; the Americans had a transport aircraft dedicated to bring in fresh salad ingredients from Okinawa which showed their commitment to their troops; problems with mail delivery; correspondents accepted as individuals by the soldiers; correspondents had to earn respect from the troops; the correspondents such as Pat Burgess once accepted by the soldiers they could get their stories; Australian tactics of ambush and patrols based on counter revolutionary warfare theories; US were trained to fight a conventional war and were not mentally attuned to take time to gain dominance over an area; US use of firepower and operations in large groups; US tactic of using small units of platoon or company size as bait and therefore heavy casualties sustained by those units; Scene C; Saigon bars and prostitutes; Australians known by prostitutes as Uc Dai Loi [Australian in Vietnamese] ‘Cheap Charlies’ Scene 8A; background to McAulay becoming an interpreter studying at RAAF school and first sent to Indonesia; in 1965 went with 1RAR to Vietnam; arrival at Bien Hoa; his role to speak to the locals warning them not to get too close to the camp; the VC would mix with the civilians to see how close they could get to the camp; role on operations was to interrogate prisoners and translate documents; on Ho Bo woods operation one hundred thousand pages of documents were found; 22 Sc 9 Take 1. 1RAR victory at Ho Bo woods was a disappointment since the order to leave was given before the tunnel system was fully explored; Sc28 Take 1. second tour 1967 on the staff of the Australian Embassy in Saigon; explains his role as a military attaché; obvious that the VC were intending a large attack; truce was always observed during the Lunar New Year; Sc 28A take 1. it was known that a lot of VC were infiltrating into Saigon; fireworks and parties helped to disguise the attack; the attack on the US embassy; describes the building construction of the embassy; VC never got into the embassy only into the grounds and the military attaches house; how the embassy was secured; Scene 33 Take 1; the ‘mini Tet’ offensive known as the battle for Saigon May 1968 was nowhere near as dangerous as the Tet offensive; the VC had sustained heavy casualties and this was freely admitted by the VC commander Major General Tran Van Tra after the war; claims of the heavy VC casualties were sneered at by the press at the time; how some parts of the city were normal and other engaged in sever fighting and airstrikes; the North Vietnamese rational for the offensive was to put battlefield pressure to influence the peace talks; many North Vietnamese soldiers were sacrificed because they were rushed in and had no chance to acclimatize; the Southern Communists were scarificed by the Northerners to be in a position of control; summing up says that Vietnam was the most addictive experience of his life and he didn’t want to go home.