The Wire

The Australian soldiers who fought in the Vietnam war have had a tough time of it – forty years later many are still dealing with issues like drugs and suicide. Don Tate was one of them – it was only after he tried to kill himself at the age of fifty that he decided to tell his own story in a just released book called “The War Within” It deals not just with his war experiences but goes right back to his Brisbane childhood, growing up poor with seven siblings and a father in gaol. As a young man he volunteered to go to fight in Vietnam – he says to try to bring some honour to his family name – but war wasn’t what he expected