Songs and Poems Written on Wars: Imagine by John Lennon

When Lennon wrote “Imagine”, and penned the words, "You may say that I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one, I hope someday you'll

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

In the Vietnam songs, all of the songs were made as protest songs against war. These songs sent a message that war is not something that we as humans should be doing and that we shouldn't have to solve our problems by killing each other. The American society felt the same way. Why are we doing this? This is not what we should be doing as humans, and this was partly why the American people didn't really welcome veterans back from war. They thought that what they were doing was "wrong" and it's not really solving anything, it's only taking lives. In the first song, "War" by Edwin Starr, there is a very clear message that war is good for nothing. Life is to short to spend fighting in wars. War is nothing but a heart-breaker and it shatters young

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

What was it? The Vietnam War was a long, costly conflict that the Australians participated in. Vietnam was occupied by Japan and once divided into two countries, North and South Vietnam, the War was civil between these two forces. The United States helped South Vietnam in order to stop the spread of communism. On the 24th of May 1962, the Australian government announced that it was sending 30 expert forces in jungle warfare to South Vietnam as military advisers to the South Vietnamese army. As the War progressed more and more Australian troops were sent to fight in Vietnam. In the end North Vietnam took over South Vietnam and Vietnam became a communist

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.

In the 1950's, the United States had begun to send troops to Vietnam and during the following 25-year period, the ensuing war would create some of the strongest tensions in US history. Almost 3 million US men and women were sent thousands of miles to fight for what was a questionable cause. In total, it is estimated that over 2 million people on both sides were killed.

“The Vietnam war was a costly and very long conflict that eroded the communist regime of North Vietnam and its allies against the South Vietnam and its ally, us the United States of America (Unknown Source).” The Vietnam War began on the eve of 1959, causing a struggle between two of our major national forces. These two forces were attempting to unify the country the both love, Vietnam.

John Lennon’s song “Imagine” was released in October 1971. Imagine was the most successful single that Lennon produced and is perhaps the best song in music history for its strong message. He wrote this song during the climax of the Vietnam War as an anti-war song. At this time in history peace movements were popular because of all the wars happening that involved the country and its people. His song is timeless as its message still applies today. It is true that everyone wants peace, but this picture Lennon illustrates is a fantasy. The song Imagine is a fantasy imagination of John Lennon that pushes the ideology of communism through its resemblance to an unrealistic society.