FOR the first time yesterday, on Vietnam Veterans' Day, the 108 men who fought for Australia at Long Tan were allowed to wear the Gallantry Cross with Palm Unit Citation - an honour recommended 42 years earlier.

In Canberra, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, unveiled a plaque to honour Lance Corporal John Gillespie - the Vietnam veteran whose body was found in the Long Hai Mountains last November.

He referred to military service as the highest calling in the land and paid tribute to Lance Corporal Gillespie as a husband and a mate. "A grateful nation thanks you, the veterans of Vietnam, for your service to Australia," he said.

But in Sydney, against the sombre cold of Martin Place, the picture was less grand.

Mr Rudd was commended for his steps forward, but Vietnam veterans had still fought out 40 years in a political twilight zone.

The NSW president of the Vietnam Veterans Association, Clive Mitchell-Taylor, spoke of successive neglect - of Labor governments that ignored veterans and of Liberals who shunned the issue that lost them government in 1972.

When he had finished, the NSW Governor, Marie Bashir, asked for a copy of the speech.

"[We were] an embarrassment to both government and opposition. Ignored by the public. Unable to understand the suicides and depression," Mr Mitchell-Taylor said.

"Acutely aware of the problems of our children. Wondering about the blisters and rashes; the respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and nervous disorders; the cancers that were taking us even in those days.

"The glory and despair of the Vietnam veteran is that it wasn't those who led us who took the fight to government, but our soldiers and [non-commissioned officers]."