Their arrival in South Vietnam in July 1962 was the beginning of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War was driven largely by the rise of communism in Southeast Asia after the Second World War, and the fear of its spread which developed in Australia during the 1950s and early 1960s. Many Australians were opposed to involvement in the Vietnam War and even more objected to the use of conscripts there. Harvard historian Arthur Schlesinger offered one point of view in his 1967 book “The Bitter Harvest.” A onetime adviser to John F. Kennedy, Schlesinger compared Vietnam to a quagmire: The first step into a quagmire inexorably draws one down a slippery slope. In March 1966 the government announced the dispatch of a taskforce to replace 1RAR, consisting of two battalions and support services (including a RAAF squadron of Iroquois helicopters), to be based at Nui Dat, Phuoc Tuy province. 50,000 Australians, including ground troops, air force and navy personnel, served in Vietnam. When the Khmer Rouge came to power in April 1975 it imposed a cruel and repressive regime that killed several million Cambodians and left the country with internal conflict that continues today. Even the smallest protest about Australian or US nuclear or war policies tended to be branded by the government and mainstream media of the day as “communist inspired” or “fellow-travelling” with communists. The Vietnam War began in the decade before, but the conflict, and especially U.S. involvement, escalated in the 1960s. Unlike 1RAR, the taskforce was assigned its own area of operations and included conscripts who had been called up under the National Service Scheme, introduced in 1964. In the well-known Moratoriums of 1970, more than 200,000 people gathered to protest against the war, in cities and towns throughout the country. Australia’s Vietnam War – and keeping it in context: others in the series _____ Parades, recognition and misremembering. In December 1972 they became the last Australian troops to come home, with their unit having seen continuous service in South Vietnam for ten and a half years. This reliance was undermined by the events of World War II. 60,000 soldiers had been sent to the front, a third of them conscripts. Also known as “America’s Longest War,” U.S. involvement in Vietnam War did not end until 1973. Suddenly Australians were made aware of the problems of refugees. The fear of communism eventually overtaking Australia was initially the main reason for Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The antiwar movement unfolded in three broad phases: Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, Search the Australian Living Peace Museum, Opposition to the Vietnam War in Australia, The Second Phase: Civil Disobedience 1967-69, The Underground Resistance Network & Widening Civil Disobedience, The Third Phase: Mass Mobilisations & Moratoriums 1969-72, The Role of Church Groups in the Vietnam War Campaign, Conclusion: The Achievements of the 1964-72 Antiwar Movement, The First Phase: Initial Dissent 1964-66 →. While the invasion succeeded in capturing large quantities of North Vietnamese arms, destroying bunkers and sanctuaries, and killing enemy soldiers, it ultimately proved disastrous. As part of the build-up, the US government requested support from other countries. On April 29th 1965, the Australian Menzies Government announced it would be sending an Australian battalion to Vietnam alongside US troops. As to why Australia made such a decision,my take is that it felt it “owed one” to the USA because of American actions in WW2 which helped prevent a Japanese invasion.Also,Australia may have feared Chinese expansion-North Vietnam being a front for China in this view. Part of the narrative of Australia’s Vietnam War in the more than 40 years since our commitment ended has been that Australian soldiers returning from their deployments were badly treated by their fellow Australians. 1968 began with a major offensive by the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army, launched during the Vietnamese lunar new year holiday period, known as “Tet”. 520 died as a result of the war and almost 2,400 were wounded. Vietnam had been the longest war in Australia’s history. Opposition to conscription focused both on preventing young men being forced into such a war and on the coercive and militarist nature of the scheme itself. By the end of the year it had committed 200,000 troops to the conflict. Many draft resisters, conscientious objectors, and protesters were fined or gaoled, while soldiers met a hostile reception on their return home. During the Vietnam War and in years after, many people in Vietnam wished to escape from the communism of their homeland. Following the end of the Second World War the French had sought to reassert control over French Indochina. [3] The Vietnam War was also a conscription war. In 1978, the first boats reached Australia at Darwin. third, the war was very unpopular with Americans and was not supported. Opponents of the war were galvanized by the indiscriminate bombing and napalming of Vietnamese civilians, the view that the war was a civil one rather than part of a “downward thrust” of “communism” towards Australia, the perception on the part of many on the left that it represented a form of imperialism on the part of the United States, and the fact that Australia was supporting an undemocratic and … Upon taking office, Ngo Dinh Diem quicklydeveloped a reputation for using force rather than democratic meansto initiate change. The only combat troops remaining in Vietnam were a platoon guarding the Australian embassy in Saigon, which was withdrawn in June 1973. Australia responded with 30 military advisers. Even after its federation and nominal independence in 1901, Australia’s foreign policy was for years strongly influenced by Britain. By early 1965, when it had become clear that South Vietnam could not stave off the communist insurgents and the North Vietnamese for more than a few months, the US commenced a major escalation of the war. Menzies wanted to achieve a better lifestyle for all Australians and was bitterly opposed to communism. Support for the war in Afghanistan has dipped below 20%, according to a new national poll, making the country's longest military conflict arguably its most unpopular one as well. This information was televised in detail, sparking anti-war movements and weakening the morale of Americans fighting in Vietnam. It was the first war to come into American living rooms nightly, and the only conflict that ended in defeat for American arms. Prior to World War II, the Australian government still looked to London for leadership, diplomatic guidance and, when necessary, military protection. Another major reason why the war became increasingly unpopular in America was the cost of the war. As part of its preparations for sending troops to the war, the Menzies Government had earlier announced in November 1964 a “birthday” ballot national service scheme under which 20 year old males would register and the required number of conscripts would be drawn from a twice-year lottery. 400,000 people were killed or maimed by this herbicide. By bringing combat into Cambodia, the invasion drove many people to join the underground opposition, the Khmer Rouge, irreparably weakening the Cambodian government. The Vietnam War was a military campaign launched by North Vietnam against South Vietnam. The extension of the war into a sovereign state, formally neutral, inflamed anti-war sentiment in the United States and provided the impetus for further anti-war demonstrations in Australia. "Respecting, supporting and remembering our veterans and their families. Australia’s participation in the war was formally declared at an end when the Governor-General issued a proclamation on 11 January 1973. A “don’t register” campaign to dissuade young men from registering for conscription gained increasing support and some of the protests grew violent. America's combat role in Vietnam came to an official end with the peace agreement signed in early 1973. Second, the United States had no business in Vietnam, but to obtain natural resources. The war was also unpopular with America’s youth. The official death toll was 521, the third-largest of any conflict Australia had joined, but far smaller than those of the two world wars. From 1965 to 1972, 15,381 national servicemen served in the Vietnam War, with 200 killed and 1,279 wounded. Its unpopularity helped to shape the turbulent social movements of the 1960s and led to deep divisions within the nation. Beginning in 1955, heused ARVN troops to reverse Communist land redistributionin South Vietnam and return landholdings to the previous owners.Fearful of Viet Minh popularity and activity in rural areas—whichhad increased as a result of Diem’s cancellation of the scheduled 1956elections—Diemuprooted villagers from their lands and moved them to settlementsund… As a result, many Australian Vietnam veterans were excluded from joining the Returned Servicemen's League (RSL) during the 1960s and 1970s on the grounds that the Vietnam War veterans did not fight a "real war". The Unnecessary War The reason why the Vietnam War was a waste of time was because the of four things. At the end of April 1970 US and South Vietnamese troops were ordered to cross the border into Cambodia. The withdrawal of troops and all air units continued throughout 1971 – the last battalion left Nui Dat on 7 November, while a handful of advisers remained in Vietnam the following year. Major protests were held in Washington in 1971. The United States supported the South, while China and Russia supported the North. Schlesinger argued that officials in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations stumbled blindly into Vietnam without understanding where the U.S. commitment would lead. The Vietnam War In 1965 the USA launched Operation Rolling Thunder: the bombing of military targets in North Vietnam. Australian support for South Vietnam in the early 1960s was in keeping with the policies of other nations to stem the spread of communism in Europe and Asia. The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) also contributed a clearance diving team and a helicopter detachment that operated with the US Army from October 1967. The advance of Japanese imperial forces into the Asia-Pacific brought an aggressive imperial power clo… The reason the Vietnam war was so unpopular is because the draft of middle income kids by the government. Vietnam remained Australia’s longest war until Afghanistan. The Australian government dispatched the 1st Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) in June 1965 to serve alongside the US 173rd Airborne Brigade in Bien Hoa province. Escalation proceeded through a series of small steps, none of which seemed t… Vietnam became a subject of large-scale news coverage in the United States only after substantial numbers of U.S. combat troops had been committed to the war in the spring of 1965. The Vietnam War lasted from 1964-1973—the longest war in American history until it was overtaken by the one in Afghanistan—and servicemen typically did one-year tours of duty. This was the belief that if one country fell to communism, it was likely that the … Sir Robert Menzies was elected Prime Minister of Australia in 1949 and maintained leadership for sixteen years. As well as the negative sentiments towards returned soldiers from some sections of the anti-war movement, some Second World War veterans also held negative views of the Vietnam War veterans. (The domino theory.) The anti-war protest began in 1962 when the first Australian troops were sent to Vietnam to fight with America. [9] Ho Chi Minh had many names and nearly as many political identities. The US government began to implement a policy of “Vietnamisation’, the term coined for a gradual withdrawal of US forces that would leave the war in the hands of the South Vietnamese. All nine RAR battalions served in the taskforce at one time or another – at the height of Australian involvement it numbered some 8,500 troops. The 1964-1972 anti-Vietnam anti-conscription movement was specifically aimed at ending Australia’s intervention in Vietnam and the associated conscription scheme. … The war was the cause of the greatest social and political dissent in Australia since the conscription referendums of WWI. While the “Tet Offensive” ultimately ended in military defeat for the communists, it was propaganda victory. Anti-war protests occurred on many college campuses. 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