A bridge over troubled times

John Masters shuffled on his walking frame to the launch of a book about his life.

The New Zealand Army officer, who was awarded the Military Cross for bravery in Malaysia, was a battery commander in the Vietnam War and campaigned for years afterwards on behalf of his men who were dying prematurely of cancer. Now, at 75, he too is weakened by the disease.

Masters' biography, A Bridge Over, was launched at the Papanui RSA in Christchurch yesterday. It was written by Allan Marriott, author of the acclaimed Mud Beneath My Boots, a personal view of World War I from the diaries of his uncle.

Marriott, a Christchurch health worker, met Masters through his counselling of Vietnam veterans with social and psychological problems.

About 100 people attended the launch – half of them Vietnam veterans grateful for Masters' advocacy for them over the years.

Masters said the treatment of soldiers returning from Vietnam in 1971 was shameful. The war was politically unpopular and the government, army, RSA and many citizens shunned the veterans.

Yet the soldiers had been sent to Vietnam by the government. They had done their duty. They had impressed the South Vietnamese and allied troops with their efficiency. Their treatment of civilians was far more humane than that meted out by North Vietnamese soldiers, he said.

The New Zealand veterans were told they had not been in "a real war" and should not be in the RSA.

Many were haunted by war experiences and, unable to discuss them with wives and partners, sought to confide in old soldiers. Often they sought in vain, Masters said. Feeling their efforts were not valued, many resorted to alcohol. Wife-beating, family breakups, job losses and suicide became common.

Masters was further angered when children of Vietnam veterans were born with deformities and, in the 1980s, veterans began dying of cancer. Medical authorities in the United States were attributing such issues to exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange.

Masters led a long campaign to overcome government denial that New Zealand soldiers, too, had been affected by the defoliant sprayed by aircraft on the jungle.

Masters furnished the proof of Kiwi soldiers' exposure. It led to an apology in 2008 from Prime Minister Helen Clark and a $30 million compensation package.