Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Ballot" by Dan Mulvagh.
5 out of 5 stars
by Elavarasi Charles » 29 Dec 2025
When a political interest of a nation is negatively reflected in the lives of thousands of Australian lads, a cruel page of history is born. Ballot: When Fate Called Their Names by Dan Mulvagh takes readers back to 1964, when the Australian government used a ‘birthday ballot’ system to conscript 20-year-old men into the Vietnam War.
Mitch, Jaroslav (aka Jay), Greg, and Kiwi were among the ill-fated youngsters who were forcefully conscripted to fight in a war in a foreign land. Because America imposed its ideologies on the Australian government, Australia’s higher administrators decided it was in the best interest of their national security to send allies to the ongoing war against communists in Vietnam. Trusting they were in good hands, Mitch and his newly found cohort entered a deadly battleground that reeked of the drying blood of fighters and defenders alike.
The enlistment and training made the men out of the gang, but the reality of the war and, on top of it all, the hidden enemy in the form of the wild jungles of Vietnam tested every bit of their youthful vigor. They crossed those hurdles hand in hand with the slogan ‘All for one and one for all.’ What they didn’t know was that a cruel fate awaited them and that the battleground would be the last time they’d be together as a whole. One had his leg crippled, one was listed as KIA, one wasn’t even on the MIA list, and one crumpled under the weight of these traumas for life. So when the mates got another chance at redemption, to find out what happened to the one lost to history, they grasped at it as if it were their last lifeline.
“We the unwilling, led by the unqualified to kill the unfortunate, die for the ungrateful.”
This quote from Greg in the book summarizes the war they had to fight. As the characters, with a doctrine-induced conviction, follow the higher authorities and experience war, readers are given a detailed social and political milieu of late 1900s Australia, followed by the war-permeated everyday life of Vietnam, and then the Closed Cities of the Soviet Union, where scientific research on space and nuclear weapons was conducted. The author’s interest in history and politics holds the story with a firm scaffolding, where his unflinching yet unbiased statements on the effects of war on participants scream silently. It was devastating how war can rob momentum and peace from someone’s life and leave only scars and indigestible memories to carry forward. And to think that no rewards or recognition were granted for such sacrifice, as in the case of the Australian war heroes, who were both accused and ridiculed for their obligatory participation. It was a hard read. But it's satisfying nonetheless to see the voiceless many get their stories heard.
Russian, formerly Soviet Union, history takes center stage in the story. The life within the hidden city and the struggle to escape from there were riveting. And the friendship that was the breath of this story was admirable. As a result, the bonding of the ‘Fearsome Foursome,’ as Mitch and his mates call themselves, lingers in the mind for a long time. The editing is done with spotless, military precision. I found not a single error in the entire book. Considering the theme and foul language, I consider teens and older readers interested in the Vietnam War to be best suited for this war novel. Ballot presents readers with a fearless waltz of the bonded spirits atop a flaming floor of warmongering politics and its ruthless domination over commoners’ lives.
And, as I found nothing to dislike, I give this masterpiece a 5 out of 5.