Australia's Involvement In The Vietnam War

The Vietnam War which went from 1965 to 1975 involved America and its allies, including Australia, aiming to prevent South Vietnam from an invasion by the communist North Vietnaese. There were many key reasons for Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The Americans provided valuable support when they arrived at our aid during the WWII so Australia felt a responsibility to return a favour to the US to maintain healthy foreign relations. Australia also became implicated in the war due to the threat posed by the expansion of communism, known as the “Domino Effect”. On the political front Australia was also very anticommunist and believed to stop the war arriving at our front step we should use the forward defence approach. For these

The Vietnam War was first derived from the gradual oppression of the communist party of the north over the region of South Vietnam. The North Communist party was supported mainly by China and the Soviet Union whiles the Anti-Communist party of South Vietnam was supported by United States and France. The communist party group, as known as the Viet Cong, was recognized for their guerilla war strategies within the region of South Vietnam, intended to fully expand and unify Vietnam under Communist rule. U.S. involvement with the Vietnam War starting in November 1, 1955, develops from the theory of the domino effect, stating that if one country falls into communism, a threat that can develop into the encouragement and spread of communism throughout the world in the future. It is basically viewed as a potential harm to the welfare of the United Sates. Therefore, due to the conflicting forces of the historical, political, economic and cultural nature of the war itself, it is known to be the longest enduring war in United States history that altered many lives of the Vietnamese and American community, leading to suffrage and acts of courage.

Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War started in 1962-75. Some of the reasons for Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War were mostly to do with the fear of communism and using the “forward defence” strategy to prevent the domino theory from happening. During this time Australia’s attitude towards the war changed due to the protesting of anti-war groups such as ‘save our sons’, it was believed that it was more of a civil war then a communism war,  and because it was a television war.

The Vietnam war has been referred to by many names, one of the longer ones was 'the cornerstone of the free world southeast Asia'. It was called that by John F. Kennedy. He was talking about Vietnam being and essential country in a non-communist world. He believed that if Vietnam became a communist country, all of the surrounding countries would also become communists. This is the main reason America was involved in the Vietnam war. Another reason was that America wanted to spread their “political ideas around the globe”. They wanted to do this so that their anti-communism stance was clear. The public also wanted to keep communism from spreading. To soldiers, the war was like a crusade, a great journey to purge the communists from Vietnam.

In the twentieth century after World War 2 the world was threatened by the takeover of communist that had begun to consume the globe. The Australian government identified that the fear ideology communism will take over the country if no actions were taken to stand against and stop it. The Australian government provided support and participated in several military conflicts during the Cold War to reduce the threat of communist around the world. However, the longest of Australia’s military engagement was the Vietnam War from 1965 to 1975. Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War was mainly centred on its fear of the ‘Domino Theory’, and its relations with the U.S through the Foreign policy which involved the ‘Forward Defence’ policy. The

Tom: Australian forces had quite a lot of involvement in the war in Iraq. They were involved primarily in three operations; Operation Bastille, Operation Slipper, and Operation Falconer.

In 1961 as the Communist North Vietnamese advanced into South Vietnam. The communist Laos party allied

Australia had quite a large involvement in the Vietnam War and it is still considered an important part of our history, as it is the longest Australia has been involved in any war. We were involved in the war from 1962 to 1972 and roughly 60000 Australian men and women served there. Our initial involvement was with military advisors to support the South Vietnamese army and then that escalated to sending fighting troops, as it was more difficult for the South Vietnamese army to defeat the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese army on their own. Our decision to commit troops to the battle was based on the fear of communism; North Korea’s invasion of South Korea was considered a communist danger to democracy. A few of the other main reasons for our presence in the conflict include; to support the United States presence in the region, the belief in the ‘domino theory’ and because of our presence in the ANZUS and SEATO treaties.

The Vietnam War was fought between North Vietnam communists led by their leader Ho Chi Minh and South Vietnam anti-communists led by their president Ngo Dinh Diem. North Vietnam was trying to taking over South Vietnam to make it a communist country. That is when the U.S. came knocking on South Vietnam’s door and gave them much needed help in 1950. In Eric Foner’s and John A Garraty’s essay, “Vietnam War,” they explain, “from Washington’s perspective, . . . [a]ny communist anywhere, at home or abroad, was, by definition, an enemy of the United States” because of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s “domino theory” (Foner). Eisenhower’s “domino theory,” was a theory that if communists took over Vietnam, they would gradually control all of Southeast Asia. The first aid given by the U.S. was to France. Willbanks explains in his essay that the U.S. provided France, a South Vietnamese ally, $2.6

Australia responded with 30 military advisers. Their arrival in South Vietnam in July 1962 was the beginning of Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War. According to the Australian war memorial website the arrival of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) in South Vietnam during July and August 1962 was the beginning of Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War. Australia's participation in the war was formally declared at an end when the Governor-General issued a proclamation on 11 January 1973. The only combat troops remaining in Vietnam were a platoon guarding the Australian embassy in Saigon, which was withdrawn in June

‘The War to End All Wars’, commonly known as First World War, was one of the largest wars in history global conflict in Europe that commence on 1914 and lasted until 1918. Due to the aggression among the alliances, countries came to each other’s support and evolved in the six main powers of Europe uniting into two large groups: Italy, Austria-Hungary and Germany compose the Triple Alliance, while France, Russia and Britain established the Triple Entente. By the outbreak of the Great War, Australian men hurried to enlist for the cause of supporting the ‘mother country’ as Australia had a deep affection and loyalty towards Britain. As war progressed, Australia became aware of the barbaric reality of war.

Due to Australia’s agreement with USA, it was required to assist America with the fight against communism, else the agreement be nullified. Conscription and Vietnam War In 1964, conscription was introduced for 20-year-old males under the National Service act of 1964. Conscripts were chosen by means of sortition, which means that men were chosen by a sort of lottery draw where men were chosen based on their date of birth and expected to give two full years of continuous service to the army. Naturally, conscription caused massive political outroar within Australia and protests ensued.

Australia is a British settled colony; nevertheless, Australian forces have fought together with the United States military in every significant conflict since World War I.

As a great family of nations, involved in a struggle greater than us, Australia’s assistance for South Vietnam commenced in early 1960’s to enforce the policies of other prosperous nations to limit the spread of communism in Asia (RSL NSW, 2014). From the time of the arrival of the first forces in 1962 approximately 60,000 fellow Australians, including ground troops and airforce and naval force work force, served in Vietnam (NFSA, 2017). To you we are thankful.

The conflict in Vietnam for the United States started when President Dwight D. Eisenhower went along with the domino theory and sent in military advisors in South Vietnam to stop the communist movement from taking place in South Vietnam. The Vietnam conflict was between the communist’s and the United States. North Vietnam was led by Ho Chi Minh, and Ho Chi Minh led the Viet Cong, a guerilla group to help spread communism. The United States were supporters of the South Vietnam because they wanted them to maintain their government rather than falling to the domino theory of communism. After Eisenhower’s term ended John F. Kennedy became president and took control of the situation of Vietnam but on November 22, 1963, Kennedy was