User talk:Pmjohns

Hi Nick

Forgive me, I am new to contributing to Wikipedia so I'm not sure if this is the page you turn to for responses.

Yes, I am the same person who made the original entry (apologies re not following protocol which I am learning) that seems to have caused you some concern. I am the President of the Vietnam Swans Australian Rules Football Club. I'm not sure who you are, Nick but would be interested to know.

You removed my entry because "it's about the war, not football competitions". You are in part correct. But "Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War" also has a section on "Social attitudes and treatment of veterans" - which is the section relevant to my entry.

The Vietnam Swans are now hosting a football match each year on ANZAC Weekend as a way of recognising veterans and making the history more accessible to ordinary people. We also play the match on the same oval that Australians played footy on during the War in 1968/69. Football teams are community based and have a lot to do with influencing social attitudes. What we do is an explicit recognition of the veterans who came to Vietnam - and the Vietnamese who now so warmly welcome us to their country.

Vietnam Veterans were actively involved with our inaugural match. And now, the word is spreading (eg Vietnam Veterans' magazines TPI Chin Up, Vietnam Veterans Debrief Magazine and the Ulysses Club Magazine, Riding On have all published articles about the ANZAC Friendship Match. Click here for the original articles). In addition, the Vietnam Veterans Association is well aware of our match and has offered encouraging words. Individual veterans have advised that they will return next year with a number of other veterans.

In your response, you seem to suggest that "Social attitudes and treatment of veterans" somehow stops on a particular date and therefore, you dismiss our match as being "trivial". I believe that our ANZAC Friendship Match, which also incorporates tours of significant sites from the war, is extremely relevant. This year, 80 people flew down from Hanoi for the ANZAC weekend, including the football match. In attendance at the match was the Australian Ambassador, Australian Consul General, Australian Defense Attache, the Austrade Commissioner and the Executive Director of the Australian Chamber of Commerce. According to the Australian Consulate, last year 400 people attended the Long Tan Dawn Service on ANZAC Day. This year the number had increased to 650 and I would argue that the football match was responsible for a significant percentage of that increase.

Living and working in Vietnam, I am very aware that this whole topic is quite sensitive. Accordingly, I respect your decision at face value to remove my entry in case we have overlooked something. However, if we are not to mention the ANZAC Friendship Match, I think you need to be able to offer something a bit more substantive than your comment, "it's about the war, not football competitions". Left as a stand alone comment, it could be interpreted as a personal opinion.

I very much look forward to reading your response, Nick.

Regards Phil Johns National President Vietnam Swans Australian Rules Football Club www.vietnamswans.com


 * Hi Phil, it might be best to discuss this at Talk:Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War so it's easily visible to other editors and they can join the conversation. My concern is that the recent football matches organised by your club are not important to the article's topic, which is Australia's involvement in the war in the 1960s and 1970s. Moreover, there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of commemorative events since the end of the war as well as a major push to rebuild Australian-Vietnamese relations (which has included millions of dollars in aid, prime minsterial visits, etc) and I don't see how the football matches are particularly significant in these regards either. The material you'd like to add seems appropriate for the Australian rules football in Asia article. However, please note that, in general, you should not be adding material to Wikipedia which covers and organisation you're closely involved with - please see Conflict of interest for the guideline on this topic. Regards, Nick-D (talk) 09:48, 7 November 2010 (UTC)

Hello
Judging by your edit to the Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War am I right in thinking that you're the same person as was editing using the account until it was blocked? While it's OK to change accounts when your previous one was blocked only due to the user name, it's best to be clear about that. Also, please stop adding trivial information to the Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War article - it's about the war, not football competitions. Regards, Nick-D (talk) 07:30, 1 November 2010 (UTC) Italic text