Share
clip 2, 3Clip description
The clip shows Air Vice-Marshall Ky’s visit to Canungra Jungle Training Centre, and Mme Ky’s visit to the Queensland headquarters of the Red Cross.
Curator’s notes
On arrival in Brisbane on 20 January 1967, the South Vietnamese leader’s touring party was met by the Queensland Premier, Frank Nicklin. Ky was escorted to the Army Jungle Training Centre at Canungra (now the Defence Intelligence Training Centre), about 100 km south-west of Brisbane, to observe troops in training for Vietnam. He was met there by Malcolm Fraser, who’d been appointed to Harold Holt’s first cabinet in 1966 as Minister for the Army. In his very first prime ministerial statement, Holt had announced an expansion of Australia’s troop commitment in Vietnam, which included national service conscripts. At Canungra Ky presented a gift to Major General Timothy Cape, General Officer Commanding Northern Command. While the men were at Canungra, Mme Ky visited the Queensland headquarters of the Red Cross in Brisbane.
While conservatively shot, even for the period, there is some nice camerawork, particularly the dramatic sequence of the soldiers training in smoke. Unike today’s news and current affairs programs, the coverage is simply factual, although we are presented with a positive view of the visitor and his glamorous wife.
