Why%20Did%20Australia%20Fight%20In%20The%20Vietnam%20War?

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Why Did Australia Fight In The Vietnam War?

• Why did we send 47,000 men and women to Vietnam?

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Fear of communism

• There was a growing fear of communism
• The invasion of the North Korean communists into
  democratic South Korea was seen as a threat to
  democracy
• Sending troops to Vietnam was a move to support
  democracy

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Situation in Vietnam

• Vietnam was once a colony of France
• After WW2 the Vietnamese fought a war against the
  French and became an independent country
• The leader of this fight was Ho Chi Minh
• He was a communist leader in Vietnam
• Vietnam split in two at the 17th parallel in 1954
• The north was communist
• The south was democratic
• The presence of communists in Vietnam worried
  countries like Australia and USA

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The Domino Theory

• Australian and American politicians felt that if
  Vietnam fell to communism then other countries
  such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and
  Indonesia would also fall to the communists

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The Domino Theory
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Previous examples

• Australias involvement in the Korean War 1950 -
  1953
• Communist North Korea was fighting democratic
  South Korea
• The Malayan Emergency 1955
• Communists were becoming influential and fighting
  a guerilla war in Malaya

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Previous examples

• Australias involvement in the Korean War 1950 -
  1953
• Communist North Korea was fighting democratic
  South Korea
• The Malayan Emergency 1955
• Communists were becoming influential and fighting
  a guerilla war in Malaya

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PM Menzies

• We have decidedand this has been after close
  consultation with the Government of the United
  States to provide an infantry battalion for
  service in South Vietnam
• There can be no doubt of the gravity of the
  situation in South Vietnam.
• The takeover of South Vietnam would be a direct
  military threat to Australia and all the
  countries of South and South-East Asia. It must
  be seen as part of a thrust by Communist China
  between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

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Alliances

• ANZUS
• The ANZUS agreement of 1951.
• Australia, New Zealand and the United States
  agree to come to each others aid in the event of
  an attack

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Alliance

• SEATO
• The SEATO Treaty of 1954.
• This treaty set out that action would be taken if
  the following countries were attacked USA, Great
  Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand
  or Pakistan.
• South Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos were also
  guaranteed protection

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Australia sends troops to Vietnam

• The Australian government felt that the best way
  to deal with communist threats was to send troops
  to the threat
• In 1962 Australia sent 30 military advisers to
  assist US forces in South Vietnam

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Countries that went to war in Vietnam

• Eight countries supported South Vietnam in its
  struggle with North Vietnam
• United States of America
• Australia
• New Zealand
• South Korea
• The Philippines
• Thailand
• Spain
• Taiwan

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Open conflict escalates

• In 1964 the USA claimed that the North Vietnamese
  had bombed its ships in the Gulf of Tonkin off
  the coast of Vietnam
• The USA began bombing raids on Vietnam

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Open conflict escalates

• Australia sent its First Infantry Batallion and
  HMAS Sydney to Vietnam in 1965
• Then, in 1966, Australia increased its military
  commitment in Vietnam by a factor of three
• Total war decsended on Vietnam

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