Hawke govt moved to pacify Viet veterans

Vietnam veterans were outraged when the royal commission they had long demanded declared their health problems weren't due to the herbicide Agent Orange.

That was in 1985 and it wasn't until three years later, and after another review, that the Hawke Labor government formally responded to the commission's findings.

Cabinet papers for 1988 and 1989, released by the National Archives of Australia, show the government had little choice but to endorse the finding that exposure to chemical agents in Vietnam would unlikely be the cause of long-term health effects.

But it did support recommendations which veterans found more agreeable: creation of a Vietnam war memorial, declaration of a Vietnam veterans' day (August 18) and expansion of services provided by the Vietnam Veterans Counselling Service.

Australia's war in Vietnam started in 1962 with the last combat forces out by the end of 1971.

Within years veterans fell ill as evidence from the US blamed exposure to a widely-used chemical herbicide called Agent Orange.

The veterans demanded a royal commission. The Fraser government was sympathetic but believed an epidemiological study would be better to establish a link between their health issues and Agent Orange.

In 1983, the new Labor government relented, appointing Justice Philip Evatt to conduct a royal commission.

He released his report in July 1985, outraging veterans by declaring: "There is no reliable evidence that the chemicals in Agent Orange cause cancer in humans."

The Hawke cabinet documents include correspondence from the Vietnam veterans Association accusing the Evatt Commission of bias and plagiarism.

They also wanted a further scientific inquiry.

The government wasn't about to revisit the Evatt commission, saying while it didn't agree with all its conclusions it did not accept the judge was biased.

It referred the issue of further scientific inquiries to the National Health and Medical Research Council.

Eventually, a succession of health and mortality studies found there were elevated rates of some cancers and other health conditions amongst Vietnam veterans.

Some were attributable to herbicide exposure.