What were they thinking? : New Zealand Catholics and the Vietnam War

Abstract

This research investigates the attitudes and actions of a sample of New Zealand Catholics before and during the involvement of New Zealand combat troops in Vietnam. Oral Histories of some New Zealand Catholics who went to Vietnam in various capacities and oral histories of some New Zealand Catholics who protested against New Zealand (and United States) military actions in Vietnam are compared to archival material from Catholic archives and general histories about New Zealand’s involvement in the Vietnam War in order to explore the background to attitudes that New Zealand Catholics formed about military intervention in an unpopular and ultimately futile military exercise. Through the global reach of the Catholic Church, the Catholic community within New Zealand probably had the closest links of any Christian community with the people of Vietnam because of the large Catholic minority in Vietnam. New Zealand Catholics also had links to Catholics in Eastern Europe and Asia who had suffered persecution from communists. The Vietnam War era was also a time of significant change within the Catholic Church. The Second Vatican Council and the Papal teachings of Pope John XXIII, and Pope Paul VI promoted a new emphasis in attitudes to both war and communism. However the New Zealand Catholic hierarchy, unlike their American colleagues and the National Council of Churches in New Zealand, never condemned the war. Participants in this study and archival material provide ample evidence of diversity of attitudes and soul-searching in relation to the war. There was fierce and often emotional debate about the morality of New Zealand’s position within the alliance. There was also ample evidence of a change in attitudes as the intensity of the war increased and it looked increasingly like a “lost crusade”. The range of positions, taken by Catholics, about the war was not significantly different from other New Zealanders, but the attitudes supporting those positions had unique characteristics. Participants agreed that attitudes and actions taken in relation to the Vietnam War were significant for the rest of their lives.