It would be a disservice to Graham Freudenberg over a 50-year career of writing for a succession of Labor leaders to suggest he peaked early, but it was one of his first speeches he wrote that remained his source of greatest pride.

Mr Freudenberg's 1965 speech for Labor leader Arthur Calwell opposing the commitment of Australian troops to the Vietnam war that encapsulated a stance that at the time was deeply politically unpopular but ultimately vindicated.