Reasons For Australia's Involvement In The Vietnam War

Australia wanted to stop communism and stop the communism ripple effect occurring, with the forward defence policy Australia could ensure its safety. Forward defence is meeting any threats to Australia as far away from the mainland as possible. Menzies was having troubles getting the public to agree on his anti communism views so he created the fear of 'reds under the bed' which got him enough support from the public to support his campaign. Australia first started it’s campaign in 1962 when it sent 30 advisers called ‘the team’ into Vietnam, Australia later sent land and air fighters. Australian troops in Vietnam reached the largest in 1964 with 8,000 troops

Australia took part in the ANZUS treaty because they were a really small country at the time and still is. They felt threatened by communism spreading through Asia and wanted to prevent it from reaching Australia. Australia could not do this on their own and therefore looked for support from a bigger nation. This was a problem because before the WWII Australia had always relied on Britain but that had changed after Japan’s annulation of Britain in Singapore during the war. Now Australia needed someone new and with the threat of communism they looked towards America.

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 beginning on November 1st 1955 and ending April 30th 1975 was a highly controversial war that originally took place as a civil war between Northern and Southern Vietnam. Northern Vietnam was backed by Russia and China while Southern Vietnam was backed by the USA. This war made a hugely divisive impact on Australian society a few months after they entered in July 1962 as allies to the USA and Southern Vietnam. Some factors of the Vietnam War contributed to cohesion among the Australian public such as the fear of communism and the subsequent “domino effect. However many factors of this war such as the media coverage, conscription being brought back under the Menzies government, anti-war protests and post-war immigration, were all important aspects of this war and made it much more divisive than cohesive, especially in the later stages.

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.

In 1945, after World War II had finished, Australia finally felt at peace – that was until Communism began to have an effect on the entire world. Australia had a lot to fear, with the threat likely to infiltrate the country both domestically (an established Communist Party) and internationally (a geographical location close to countries that had already fallen victim to communism, such as China and Korea). Australia responded to both of these threats in a way that caused a lot of political controversy and has created bonds with other parts of the world that are still activated today.

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.

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

It is important to remember that for most of the period before full-scale war erupted in Vietnam, it was Australia who was pushing America into further involvement in the region. SEATO was eventually used by the Americans to justify their presence in Vietnam, but it was the Australians who actually tried to invoke SEATO first. In 1962 when they wanted to stop Indonesian aggression in western New Guinea, they asked America to become involved, but the US had diplomatic commitments with Indonesia as well as Australia and said no. This does not mean that the American alliances were not an important factor in Australia going to war. Australia had made itself essentially dependent on American help in the event of external aggression and that dependence had a price tag of involvement in American foreign policy. The plain and simple fact was that if Australia did not help America now, then America might not come to Australia in her hour of need, if it ever arose. So yes, Australia's relationship with America was an important factor in Australian

Australia first came involved in the Vietnam conflict in 1962 when the Australian Government sent a team of thirty army advisers to help train the South Vietnamese Army for its fight against the NLF guerrillas. At the same time a squadron of Royal Australian Air Force fighters were sent to nearby Thailand. While the alliance with the USA was becoming increasingly important, Australia still had strong ties with Britian. In January 1965, Australia sent an army of battalion to help Britain denfend newly independent Malaysia against border raids by Indonesia. Only three months later the Australian Prime Minister Menzies announced the commitment of another battalion to help the USA in

Australia felt obliged to support the allies’ troops. All of Australia’s major allies who included US and Great Britain supported the war in Vietnam. Australia felt that it needed to take its place among the serious anti-communist countries of the world. Australia also felt that they needed to support US.

One of the main reasons Australia went to war was the call to help from the alliances we had previously made, especially those regarding the American forces. This is shown in the book ‘War For Asking’ by Micheal Sexton in which Allan Renouf states, “to achieve such an habitual closeness of relations with the United States and sense of mutual alliance that in our time of need, after we have shown all reasonable restraint and good sense, the United States would have little option but to respond as we would want”. As a consequence it became obvious that if we wanted to keep good ties with

The explanation why they supported the involvement of the war was because the Australian Democratic Party had a large Catholic membership. With that being so the party was truly anti-communist. Moreover, It was a committed to object to any ALP policies. So because of this it automatically supported the war. Hence why, The Australian Democratic party supported Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam

On the 15th of February 1942 Singapore surrendered to the Japanese, this began a catalyst for the change of Australian policy as Singapore was seen as a beacon of Britain imperialism and the fall of this iconic imperial state was troublesome for Australia. British was under the impression that the Japanese would be easily defeated in Singapore post their surrender Australia was in a panic (Walker and Sobocinska 2012). The Australian Prime minster from 1941 – 1945 was John Curtin, he is 1942 requested assistance from the United States to ensure Australian protection from the Japanese, this was the genial move away from Imperial protection (Curtin John "Foreign Policy" 2016). Curtin stated 27 December 1941 in his the task ahead speech 'without any inhibitions of any kind.... I make quite clear that Australia looks to America, free of any pangs as to our traditional links of kinship with the United Kingdom' (Curtain John, “The task ahead” 1941). American and Australian soldiers fought side by side in New Guinea and Indonesia, the alliance made between the soldiers strengthened the relationship between the US and Australia. Up until 1945 Australian foreign policy was dictated by fear by impending threat of invasion by Japan. Between April – June of 1945 the deputy prime

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.