Commonwealth Vietnam Medal

The Vietnam Medal was instituted in 1968 to recognise New Zealanders who served in the Vietnam War. It was awarded for qualifying periods of 1 day on land, 1 operational sortie by air, 28 days at sea off the coast or 30 days cumulative visits, between 29 May 1964 and 27 January 1973 (the latter date was the date of the signing of the Paris Accords).

New Zealand and Australia jointly developed and instituted the Vietnam Medal. However, there is a separate Royal Warrant for each country. Australian military personnel and some Australian civilians were awarded the Vietnam Medal by the Australian government.

The Vietnam Medal was the first operational service medal for Australian or New Zealand personnel to be designed and produced in Australia. The Vietnam Medal was manufactured by the Royal Australian Mint.

The first issue of the Vietnam Medal was made to the eligible members of the Australian and New Zealand contingent who were going to Paris for the commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary on 11 November 1968 of Armistice Day in the First World War.

The medal was designed by Andor Meszaros, a well known Australian medallist. On the obverse is the Effigy of the Sovereign. The reverse features “Viet Nam” inscribed above a symbolic representation of the ideological war in Vietnam, depicting the figure of a man in the centre of the medal standing between spherical shapes.