Why Did Vietnam Came To Australia Case Study

During the years from 1914 - 1918 Australia was at constant battle all over the world fighting for the british. With battles deaths always follow. So many people say, “what did we ever gain from WW1 we lost so many people as a country”. Although we lost almost 60,000 men and 150,000 wounded or taken prisoner. After the war the British Government offered ex-servicemen free transportation to some of the colonies, 17,000 migrants arrived in Australia between 1919 and 1922. Community organisations paid for migrants to come over to Australia. Small numbers also arrived independently. It was also said that up to 300,000 men came over from britain post war to live. The British government gave an incentive to migrate over because so many people

In 1970, 3 Moratorium Movement had taken place in Australia. The first Moratorium Movement was held in May, over 200 000 people all over Australia marched in it. Luckily this was a peaceful protest; the government didn’t take much action towards stopping the march.  The second Vietnam Moratorium that took place in September that year but unlike the first movement it was a lot smaller and violence occurred, 200 people were arrested in Sydney alone. This movement first took place in the US; hundreds of thousands of people stopped work for the day and protested on streets to their country’s involvement in the war. The strength and number of people in the moratorium movement shocked the government; they were surprised at the level of people against the Vietnam War. Between 1970-1971, Australian troops were slowly withdrawn from Vietnam. In 1972 at the end of the war it became clear that most of Australia were against and that they no longer agreed with the “Forward Defence” policy where they go out and met the threat where it was.

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.

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.

With the already little population of 5 million Australian people and the loss of 300,000 men, this should have been a dark time, but to make up on that loss Australia received 300,000 migrants. These Migrants came from Britain. As there was a large amount of unemployment the British government encouraged the people of britain to migrate to Australia. Also the

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.

For many years Asian Migrants were restricted from entering Australia and found it difficult to migrate due to discriminatory political policies. The main policies were the ‘dictation test’, the policy of ‘Assimilation’ and the ‘White Australia’ policy. The main Asian Migration wave occurred in 1976 after the Vietnam War forced many people to leave there homes and come here to Australia. These Asian Migrants arrived in Australia by boat which was usually very over crowded. The cause of

This later had important implications for the military's force structure in the 1980s and 1990s. The experience in Vietnam also caused an intolerance for casualties which resulted in succeeding Australian governments becoming more cautious towards the deployment of military forces overseas. Regardless, the "imperative to deploy forces overseas" remained a feature of Australian strategic behaviour in the post-Vietnam era, while the US alliance has continued to be a fundamental aspect of its foreign policy into the early 21st

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.

According to Povell, the US airlifted - or otherwise transported - 125,000 Vietnamese during the Spring of 1975, as part of “Operation New Life.” The Vietnamese immigrants were brought to US government bases

The Vietnam War occurred during 1962-1975, it was one of the longest war during the twentieth century which Australia had participated in. There were 60,000 personnel and that number grew from limited initial commitment of thirty advisors in 1962. In 1965 there was a battalion and a task force in 1966. There was an estimated of 3,269 casualties and 500 deaths. During that period of time, men from Australia that had turned twenty were required to register with the Department of Labour and National Services. If their name was drawn out of the ballot they were sent to two full years in continuous service for the army and three years of part-time duty.

The Vietnam War was of great importance to Australia as there was an emerging fear of communism in western countries, these countries believed in a domino theory where if one country fell to communism the surrounding countries would follow. Throughout this essay the leading reasons for Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam war will be evaluated, through four significant sources: Allan Renouf, Australian Ambassador in Washington’s letter, Sir Robert Menzies, Parliamentary Debates, 29th April, 1965, Sir James cables comments at the Geneva Convention and PM Harold Holt’s speech. The main reasons for Australia's involvement in the war were the ANZUS treaty signed after World War 2, The Domino Theory (The theory that surrounding countries would

In July 1964 Australia sent troops to another war. No, not a war of trenches or prisoners, but a war of close quarter combat, excessive mortar firing and the dreaded napalm. Yes Vietnam. This decision was based on multiple reasons. The first reason was that we needed to stick to our treaty’s, The South- East Asia treaty (SEATO) and ANZUS, the alliance of Australia, New Zealand and the United States. The second reason was the fear of invasion from countries in the north that would be quickly taken over by communism i.e. the domino theory. Australia had been sent a request from the South Vietnamese government for involvement along side the US. Rumours going around back then were that the United states were curious to see if Australia would

Vietnam’s geographical location made it strategically important to Australia’s protection of its borders. If South Vietnam were to fall to their Northern Vietnamese aggressors, Australia believed that it would leave other countries in the Asian region including itself, vulnerable to attack. Additionally, Australian as a nation was psychologically prepared for a war. The Liberal government’s policy was shaped around the idea of ‘forward defence’ which was the notion that Australia should defend itself by attacking and never allowing the threat to reach our shores. The threat that the fall of South Vietnam presented is displayed in a speech given by Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies in April of 1965 in Source B, “The takeover of South Vietnam would be a direct military threat to Australia and all the countries of South and South East Asia”. Menzies was firm in his conviction of the severity of the situation should South Vietnam be taken over by the communist regime and was convinced that a head on conflict with the problem was the answer. Australia saw Northern Vietnamese aggression as a direct military threat to the protection of their borders and was prepared for the governments ‘forward defence’ approach of taking the fight to the

Australia’s population is culturally and ethnically diverse. As at June 2010, there were 22.3 million residents in Australia, around one-quarter of the population was born overseas and many residents who were born in Australia have a parent who was born in another country. Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders represent 2.3% of the population