Australia's Involvement in the Vietnam War
The origins of the Vietnam War lie in the post World War II period when the European empires were being dismantled. The region which is now Vietnam was then part of Indo-China, part of the French empire. Revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh had led a national liberation struggle against wartime Japanese occupation (and the French colonialists) from 1941. With military and financial support from communist China, the Viet Minh made substantial gains, roundly defeating the French at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. Vietnam temporarily partitioned into North and South pending the outcome of peace talks. The peace talks broke down, but the struggle continued. The United States had been involved from the beginning, providing military advisors and financial assistance from the end of World War II. By 1954 they were paying for 80% of the cost of the French effort. American involvement was formalised and strengthened. Following the Gulf of Tonkin incident when US destroyers were fired upon by North Korean patrol boats, Congress authorised President Johnson to use "all necessary measures" to "repel any armed attack" on 7 August 1964. This resulted in increased bombing raids and, more significantly, an expansion of ground forces, from 23 000 in December 1
As was the case in the US, television coverage of the war was horrific and helped greatly to create a change in public opinion. Evan Whitton has noted that it was in fact the other way around: Australia encouraged the US to increase its involvement in the early 1960s. North Vietnamese troops took Saigon in 1975. That year, after a further request from the South Vietnamese Government, Prime Minister Robert Menzies decided to send a battalion of ground troops to provide support in South Vietnam. There was organised opposition to the war from the mid 1960s onwards. By 1965 this had been increased to 100 advisors plus six transport aircraft. However, in the same period, the majority was always against sending conscripts to fight in Vietnam. Opposition to the war was expressed at the ballot box in the 1969 Commonwealth election, where the Liberal majority was substantially reduced. Menzies' anti-communism came partly from the long western European opposition to communism and partly from geographical factors, the fear that communism was spreading down from China. That was my idea of communism - that it was a snake in South-East Asia and unless we stopped it there it was going to come into Australia". When Harold Holt visited the US as newly elected Prime Minister in 1966 he said that Australia would go "all the way with LBJ", LBJ being Lyndon Baines Johnson, President of the US at that time. The Australian public shared Menzies' fear of communism. By the late 1960s, protest was organised and widespread.
Common topics in this essay:
Coral Sea,
Moratorium Campaign,
Evan Whitton,
President Johnson,
SOS Movement,
War II,
Whitlam Labor,
North South,
Chi Minh,
Resisters Union,
war ii,
world war ii,
south-east asia,
opposition war,
world war,
south vietnam,
peace talks,
partly response,
prime minister,
australian population,
fear communism,
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Acceptance Essays
