Long Tan Memories, Myths and Reality by Brigadier Kevin O’Brien, CSC (Rtd). This book is dedicated to all those who faithfully served their nations during the Vietnam war.
History is complicated and confusing; understanding it is an endless effort of searching, assessing, analysing, evaluating, arguing, debating, deciding, digging in, attacking and defending. In truth, a war.
Brigadier Kevin O’Brien, CSC (Rtd) chooses his battles carefully and strategically. His new book Long Tan Memories, Myths and Reality is the culmination of his long and varied military career. The omission of the word battle from his book’s title is deliberate and decisive. It takes us to the heart of the village of Long Tan, forcibly evacuated and demolished by the Australian Army in May 1966.
In destroying Long Tan to make way for its base, the Australian Army set the scene for the famous, and now possibly infamous, Battle of Long Tan, 18 August 1966. At the time, Kevin O’Brien was a second-year cadet at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, training to be an army officer with classmate Peter Cosgrove.
On the question of the forcible evacuation and demolition of the village of Long Tan, some other books only refer in passing to this fundamental element of the story of the Battle of Long Tan with aseptic descriptors such as ‘requisitioned and repositioned’. The scant regard for what this dispossession meant to the indigenous residents and the consequences militarily, set O’Brien on a path to deeper research and consideration of the Australian forces’ prejudices and perceptions of who their enemy in Vietnam actually was.
ABOVE: Derrill de Heer, Operation Wandering Souls, returns a Viet Cong soldier’s blood-stained commendation certificate to his daughters.
Google’s AI Overview’s response draws on the prevailing and dominant historical narrative of the Battle of Long Tan and only gets it half right:
The Australian army did not forcibly evacuate the Vietnamese village of Long Tan, but rather, they relocated the villagers to secure the area around their new Nui Dat base in 1966, prior to the Battle of Long Tan that August. The villagers were moved in May 1966, which was a contributing factor to the subsequent Viet Cong attack on the Australian base.
Private Graham Gordon, whose platoon was also engaged in moving the population of the village of Long Phuoc into the neighbouring village of Hoa Long, was there on the ground. He recalls:
We hated this job in that we virtually moved people at gunpoint from their extensive teak homes, reluctant as they were, before providing security for the engineers to demolish and burn the village … This was our first operation, and we did not enjoy the experience at all.”
AVOVE: Destruction of Long Phuoc village after forcible relocation of residents to make way for Australian base camp. Hard to see how this contributed to winning their hearts and minds.
Kevin O’Brien’s post-graduate training in 1968 as an artillery forward observer saw him posted to Vietnam in 1970. His career interest in the Vietnam War and involvement in the history and heritage of the Battle of Long Tan were amplified by his first encounter with the Long Tan terrain:
When serving with Whiskey Company (a New Zealand company), of the 2nd Battalion (Anzac), in October 1970, we were tasked to send an overnight fighting Patrol into the area of the hill named ‘Nui Dat 2’. This hill and the nearby rubber plantation were the exact location where the Battle of Long Tan had earlier occurred.
Little did I realise that this personal familiarity with the actual Long Tan battleground and its position in relation to the Task Force base would stand me in good stead when some 40 years later I was appointed to an expert panel to review the Long Tan bravery awards.
I was the only Vietnam veteran on that panel.
A key recommendation of the tribunal panel, accepted by the Defence Minister of the day, was the rejection of the appeal by Harry Smith (a major and the commanding officer of D Company, 6 RAR, at the Battle of Long Tan) for the upgrade from a Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) to a Victoria Cross (VC) for Warrant Officer Kirby’s actions in the battle.
Kevin O’Brien had first met the then Major Harry Smith MC, forty years earlier in 1975, at the Infantry Centre, Singleton, NSW, where as a captain he was attending the Infantry Company Commanders’ course. He was, as he says in his book ‘... very interested to hear first-hand experiences of Major Smith’s battle experience at Long Tan.’
During the tribunal review in 2014 Kevin O’Brien realised critical aspects of the battle narrative were at odds with secondary reports. The rejection of the appeal by Harry Smith raised questions in his mind about the accuracy of other citations submitted following the battle and aspects of the narrative of the battle:
‘ … the official history, as well as many books, documentaries and the movie ‘Danger Close’ all appeared to accept that the citations were entirely accurate. There was now clear evidence presented to this formal hearing that at least one of these citations was clearly not.
I realised then that there was a need to return to and examine more closely the primary records that existed.’
Brigadier Kevin O’Brien, CSC (Rtd) is, as a career Artillery Officer, a stickler for accuracy. A key aspect of his expertise is his ability to read maps. In compiling his research for his book, Long Tan Memories: Myths and Reality, one of his key reference points was the data recorded in artillery logbooks, which listed ‘the timing, location and weight of fire on all targets as well as target descriptions.’
ABOVE; One of the maps in “Long Tan Memories, Myths and Reality” illustrating the author's expertise in reviewing data from the Battle of Long Tan.
His skills in interpreting historical data extend to bringing it to life and out into the open in his lectures on Australian Military History at the University of the 3rd Age and the United Services Club of Queensland, and in his books.
Long Tan Memories, Myths and Reality is self-published for the benefit of history, honesty, data, facts and truth, not vanity. Kevin O’Brien’s business model is built on integrity, respect and the desire to inform and educate his audience. His commitment is to intelligence and reality not prevailing myths or the pursuit of influence through mass marketing. He annotates political factors with pinpoint precision.
In Long Tan Memories, Myths and Reality Kevin O’Brien has put his money where his mouth is, not vice versa. He does, however, need to get his money back from this book (in order to fund his next book) without sacrificing 40% of the cover price of $40 to bookstore margins.
Go to longtanbook.com for more information and to buy the book.
Kevin O’Brien will be guest speaker at the Headland Preservation Group (HPG) annual general meeting 6.30 pm on Wednesday 17 September 2025 at Mosman Square Seniors Centre, Spit Junction, Mosman NSW 2088. The general public is welcome and the event is free. Please contact Barbara Sullivan for details on 0488 772198 or email barbsullivan2011@gmail.com