Effects Of The Vietnam War On Australian Society

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 began on the 1st of November 1995 and was fought in mainly in Vietnam but also in Cambodia and Laos. The war initially began when communist forces tried to expand and include Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in the communist force. The opposing political agendas also played an impacting role on the starting of the Vietnam War, due to North Vietnam becoming a communist government it was strongly supported by China in order to change South Vietnam from being an anti-communist government to adopting communism. In 1965 Australia became deeply involved and played an influential role in the Vietnam War. Australia decision to be a part of the war was mainly based on the rise of communism in the South-East Asia after the Second World War. In 1974, Congress voted not to enforce the commitments agreed to in the Paris Peace Accords. Air support for Cambodia, South Vietnam, and Laos was cut off. The promise of military aid by other was never delivered. North Vietnam was able to take over South Vietnam as force the country into communism. The War had a great impact on the Vietnamese citizen’s lives, they were forced to leave the war torn country and move to a foreign land to start a new life.

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 Effect of the Vietnam War on the Australian Society The Vietnam War had great political impact and led to deep division within Australian society. The Australian people were forced to take the issues about the Cold War, Vietnam and the arms race seriously because of Australia’s military involvement in Vietnam from 1962 to 1972. As a result, our fear of communism and of Asia increased dramatically. Australia, occupying a large mass of land, yet having a small population had always lived in the belief that they were threatened some way by the foreign powers and this led to the formation of “The White Australia Policy”, which was set up in 1901.

Although both the World Wars had significant impacts on Australians, the statement that wartime controls in World War One had a greater impact on Australians than they did in World War Two is fairly inaccurate. There are a number of reasons as to why this was the case, as demonstrated through the government 's wartime controls. One of the wartime controls that was utilised by the government in both World Wars but had greater impact on Australians in World War Two was conscription. Another wartime control that had a higher degree of impact on Australians in World War Two than in World War One was the detainment and isolation of ‘enemy aliens’ when the government again took steps to protect their national security. With such a large number of servicemen deployed overseas, the role of women in Australia also changed drastically to meet the needs of the armed forces, the government and the economy and this influenced Australian life more in World War Two. Therefore, although both wars affected the lives of many Australians in mental, physical, social and economic aspects, the wartime controls of World War Two had a much greater impact on Australians than in World War One.

The Vietnam 1 Running head: SOCIAL EFFECTS OF THE VIETNAM WAR The Vietnam War's Effects on American Society Halley E. Moore Metro High School- St. Louis The Vietnam 2 Abstract The Vietnam War had a profound effect on American society. It changed the way we viewed our government, the media, and our Constitutional rights. Because of this shift in perspective, the country was torn apart and yet still came together in new and different ways.

Australia’s Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced the decision of sending Australian troops to support the United States troops in the Vietnam War, on the 29th of April 1965. At first the majority of Australians at home supported Australia’s decision of going to war as they thought it was a good idea to stop communism. The Robert Menzies government put the fear of communism taking over Australia in the Australian community. This fear then influenced the majority of the Australian public supporting the idea of sending troop to Vietnam to help stop communism. Another reason that caused the community of Australia supporting the involvement in the war was that they feared that if Vietnam fell under communism, Australia would also fall as the domino theory displayed. When the Australian public would be interviewed about their opinion to Australia’s involvement in the war the majority would say that all countries should participate and help each other like that and another thing they would say which is because of their fear to communism is that if it’s going to protect Australia it worthwhile. The majority of the public opinion was supporting the involvement in the war as the young public who had not been to war yet would not know about the harsh conditions at war this would then make them support the idea as it will stop the threat of communism. Another major reason was that the public were afraid of communism taking over Australia. The beginning attitude of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War by the majority of the community shows that they supported the president Robert Menzies idea as they sought to protect Australia from communism. However, the public opinion did not stay supporting the involvement of Australia in the Vietnam War as it was at the start of the

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.

Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War was a result of a combined fear of communism and the fall of freedom from danger in Australian democracy and society. The growing web of communism saw the fall of many countries closing in on Australia and New Zealand, and it was believed Robert Menzies’ government that they would find communism at Australia’s shores.

Australia is considered among important allies of United States. In the Vietnam war Australia sent a force of 50 000. Being situated in Southern Hemisphere of Southeast Asia, Australia has to face exceptional defense challenges much more than neighboring partner. Historically Australia seems to be willing to accept the major role in military interventions in the surrounding area as can be seen in East Timor.

The Menzies Government, under the threat of Communist Vietnam, the domino effect, and the pressure from the Americans to come help instigated Menzies, the Australian Prime Minister at the time, to become involved in the war. During the war, it was believed that if South Vietnam were to fall to communism, then communism would spread throughout the rest of Asia, then to Australia, this was enough to spread fear through the entirety of the population and convince those in power to enter the war. The Domino theory was a belief held by various people in the 1950’s and 1960’s, particularly in America and Australia, that if no one did anything, and communism wasn’t stopped, like falling dominoes - Communism would spread through the rest of South East Asia and

There was a genuine fear of communism in Asia spreading to Australia. That can be seen domestically in the attempted banning of the communist party and the anti-communist propaganda that Australians had been subjected to for years. As for foreign policy, Australia had already demonstrated its eagerness to stop the spread of 'monolithic' communism by going to war in Korea. The fear of communism was existent throughout the western nations, including Australia. Australia’s involvement was necessary as, geographically, Australia is on Vietnam’s doorstep. If South Vietnam were to fall to communism, as the domino effect theory suggested would also happen to other Asian countries like Thailand, Myanmar and Malaya and then it would be even more difficult

The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in

Right after World War II, Vietnam was under the control of the French. The North Vietnamese were not satisfied about the French control and later was influenced by the communist China. Communism eventually spread throughout the entire northern part of Vietnam. North Vietnam citizens, led by Ho Chi Minh, then started rebelling against the French and later won. This caused Vietnam to be divided into two parts; North Vietnam and South Vietnam. After that, the U.S. was fearing that communism would spread into the south which caused them to go into war against the north. Presidents during this time reinstated the draft which would bring young men from America into the war. During the war, the media brought a lot of action to the home front which eventually was lost due to tragedies like the Tet Offensive and the My Lai Massacre.