PM Transcripts

FOR PRESS: P. M. No. 67/ 1968
VIETNAM MEDAL
Statement by the Prime Minister, Mr. John Gorton
The Queen has approved the Royal Warrant and design for
the Vietnam Medal. In announcing this today the Prime Minister said that it was
fitting that on the first occasion that Australia and New Zealand had designed
a medal to recognise the operational service for members of their Defence
Forces, both countries should again be fighting together helping to preserve
national independence and freedom.
The medal will be circular and, in keeping with all service
medals, will have the Queen's portrait on the obverse. The reverse will
have " Viet Nam" inscribed above a symbolic representation of the ideological
war in Vietnam, depicting the figure of man in the centre of the medal
standing between spherical shapes.
The design, a departure from customary medal designs, was
the work of the well-known Melbourne medallist Andor Messaros.
The n-e dal is to be manufactured in Australia by the Royal
Australian Mint6 Members of the Australian and New Zealand Armed Forces
who render service in operations in Vietnam are eligible for the medal.
Accredited members of approved Australian and New Zealand philanthropic
organisations attached to those forces may also qualify for the award.
CANBERRA 21 June 1968
Background: In 1966, The Queen signified her willingness to approve the
institution of the Vietnam Medal for award to Australian and New Zealand
Forces who have served in Vietnam. The late Prime Minister announced
this to the House of Representatives on 8 March 1966.
Since the First Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment,
returned to Australia on 8 June 1966, those qualified to receive the Medal
have been wearing the ribbon which includes the colours traditionally
symbolic of the three Services and also red and yellow which are the
national colours of the Government of the Republic of Vietnam.