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About the
Book
How well do you really know the Battle of Long Tan?
In "Long Tan: Memories, Myths and Reality", Vietnam veteran, artillery officer and military historian Kevin O'Brien examines the battle through newly available evidence, eyewitness accounts, captured enemy documents and decades of professional military experience.
The result is a powerful, evidence-based reassessment that challenges accepted history while honouring the courage and sacrifice of everyone who fought.
Whether you're fascinated by Australian military history, served in Vietnam, know someone who did, or simply want to understand one of Australia's defining battles, this is a book that will make you question what you thought you knew.
Read the evidence. Consider the facts. Decide for yourself.
Emeritus Professor David Horner
'A major contribution to understanding Australia’s iconic and most influential battle of the Vietnam War. Carefully researched with incisive and compelling conclusions.'
Prof. Peter Stanley, UNSW Canberra
'Brigadier O’Brien corrects more than fifty years of exaggerations, errors, misunderstandings and outright lies about what happened at Long Tan, and why. His revelations do not diminish the scale or intensity of the fight, but they do give us a clearer idea of the real story, and why it has been distorted for so long.'
Dr. Mia Martin Hobbs, Deakin University
‘Beyond this valuable new contribution to historical understandings of the operational story of Long Tan, O’Brien offers a clear, considered history that properly situates the Australian war in Vietnam in its wider context, revealing the construction and contradictions of Australian war memory.’
About the Author
Brigadier Kevin John O’Brien, CSC (Rtd) served in the Australian Army for 33 years.
He had a distinguished defence career including operational service in Vietnam; service with the British Army in England and on the Rhine; Instructor at the School of Artillery at North Head and later at the Australian Command and Staff College, Queenscliff. He held key artillery leadership appointments: Battery Commander ‘A’ Field Battery, Commanding Officer 8/12th Medium Regiment and Commander of 1st Division Artillery.
He has edited several books on the Defence of Sydney, the Korean War and New Guinea. He was also the executive producer of television documentaries: “Kokoda - The Bloody Track” and “Hamel - The Turning Point”. He initiated and then managed the creation of new memorial parks at Fromelles and Le Hamel in France. His most recent publication was ‘Defending Middle Head – A Short History’.
He has previously been appointed as a Trustee of the Sydney Harbour Federation
Trust; to the Board of the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway; as a Trustee of the
Bathurst RSL Sub-Branch; and as a member of the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal. He regularly lectures at the United Services Club of Queensland on Australian military history topics.
