How American was the phrase 'Rest and Recreation'?

Abstract

Most adult readers of Australian newspapers and receivers of electronic news media broadcasts in the 1960s and 1970s would have been very familiar with the phrase, 'rest and recreation' or 'R. and R.' during the period of the Vietnam conflict. Recently staff members at the University College within the Australian Defence Force Academy collaborated to produce for the Vietnam Generation Inc. and Burning Cities Press, Maryland, USA, a special issue of their periodical, Vietnam Generation, titled: 'Australia R and R: Representations and Reinterpretations of Australia's war in Vietnam'.