Kevin Conway

Annotation

Clem Parkinson, contemporary folk artist, born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. He wrote the song "Kevin Conway", about the first Australian casualty in the Vietnam War. Conway, born 11 December 1928, in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, was a Warrant Officer Class 2, with the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam. He was killed in action (K.I.A.), in the Battle of Nam Dong, South Vietnam on 6 July 1964, aged 35 years, buried at Kranji War Cemetery in Singapore. His remains were repatriated to Australia 2nd June 2016.123 There is a recording of the song at the National Library of Australia, dated 1966, under the title: "Clem Parkinson sings his own contemporary folk songs in the Norm O'Connor folklore collection".4 The lyrics of this song featured in The Vietnam Songbook published in 1969, and compiled by Barbara Dane and Irwin Silber (founders of Paredon Records) - containing 100+ Vietnam War protest songs, 9 of which came from Australia & New Zealand. Notes in the book said "the first Australian casualty of the Vietnam War was a young warrant officer by the name of Kevin Conway. He was killed in July of 1966. About myself: I am 37 years of age, a member of the New Theatre Drama Group and also a member of the Victoria Folk Music Club in Melbourne". The book dated the lyrics "1968", while the National Library of Australia, as mentioned above, provided the date "1966", so there is a discrepancy. This song, while reflecting on the first Australian death in the Vietnam War, took the opportunity to present a strong anti-war position, on the grounds that it was an unjust war: "he who dies for tyranny has thrown his life away". Looking at the North Vietnamese side-of-the-story, the narrator noted that the "peasants fought for freedom", and that "a hundred billion dollars" could not stop them. The US and its allies (such as Australia), may "call themselves advisors, but they're killers". On Conway, the narrator pondered if he did "curse the men who sent him to meet his tragic death". Sources1Virtual War Memorial Australia: Conway, Kevin George↩2Wikipedia: Battle of Nam Dong↩3Find a Grave: Kevin george conway↩4National Library of Australia↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: Kevin Conway was a soldier who left his native shore / He travelled off to Vietnam where there waged a savage war / And in that rugged country far from his land of birth / The blood of Kevin Conway soaked into the soft brown earth / But when a people hunger to be free / No power on earth can say their destiny. / The peasants fought for freedom throughout the countryside / And a hundred billion dollars couldn't buy a people's pride / So men from foreign countries use the Pound to kill and maim / And call themselves advisors, but they're killers just the same. And what of Kevin Conway, as he drew his final breath? / Did he curse the men who sent him to meet his tragic death / Were his masters filled with sorrow when they learned about his fate? / Is there such a thing as sorrow in who thrive on hate? / A man should be a brother to all men / For we shall never pass this way again / Now in a mine disaster, a bushfire or a flood / Me risk their lives for others / It's in the human blood / Men give their lives for others, it happens every day / But he who dies for tyranny has thrown his life away Kevin Conway was a soldier who left his native shore / He travelled off to Vietnam where there waged a savage war / And in that rugged country far from his land of birth / The blood of Kevin Conway soaked into the soft brown earth / But when a people hunger to be free / No power on earth can say their destiny. / The peasants fought for freedom throughout the countryside / And a…

Notes

Recording of the song at the National Library of Australia, dated 1966, under the title: "Clem Parkinson sings his own contemporary folk songs in the Norm O'Connor folklore collection". The lyrics of this song featured in The Vietnam Songbook published in 1969.

About the artist

born in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Themes

Anti-War · ANZUS

In collections

Australian & New Zealand Songs · Peace, Protest, & Anti-War Songs [War Years]