“I Was Known to be a G**k Lover”: Histories of Asian–Australian War Bride Marriages During the Vietnam War

Abstract

Marriage has long been a legacy of overseas deployment for Australian servicemen. In the case of the war in Vietnam, Australian men often interacted with local women on base, in civilian spaces, or in passing. Occasionally, couples would form private relationships and, in some cases, marry and return to Australia at the end of deployment. Vietnamese war bride marriages challenged Australian military norms and societal pressures. Despite having previously received little attention, these marriages—set against the Australian context of 1960s counter-revolutions, 1970s anti-war protests and continued anxieties around race nearing the end of the White Australia Policy—were indeed political. This paper is primarily concerned with the complex gender and racial dynamics of the intimate lives of soldiers and examines how couples met, courted, and married during the Vietnam War. This paper will address the ways marriages were controlled by military procedure, defined by the public and experienced by the couples themselves. Despite being small in numbers, historicising Vietnamese war bride marriages allows for a unique exploration of cross-cultural relationships during the war and shows how the intimate legacy of public military service interacts with the private lives of those deployed to Vietnam.