History Essays

Australia In The Vietnam Era

There are a number of differing views about Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War. Australia's government believed in the forward defense policy, which meant that they wanted to confront the spread of communism before it reached Australia's shore. Although, influence from the media, returned soldiers and even celebrities caused Australian's to doubt whether the War was neccessary.

The Cold War occurred between 1945-1991 and involved Eastern communist countries and Western countries challenging each other without actually using violence or combat. When the Cold War turned "hot", Australian's started to notice the spread of communism and began to fear the "Domino Theory". This is where communism would dominate neighbouring countries, one after the other. The "red tide" frightened capitalist countries into fighting in Vietnam.

Prime Minister Robert Menzies wanted to confront communism as far away from Australia as possible, this became known as the "forward defense" policy and was a method that was used to keep communism away from Australia. Furthermore, Australia signed key defense treaties in the case of an attack. The ANZUS agreement was signed in 1951 and required Australia, New Zealand and the United States to come to each other's aid if a war is declared. The SEATO treaty was signed in 1954 and offers for defensive action to be taken in the event of an attack on the United States, Britain, France, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand or Pakistan. When the United States joined in the Vietnam war, it only made sense for Australia to participate as well.

Vietnam is considered to be the most documented war, which meant that the media had a massive influence on the opinions of Australian's. One famous, yet confronting, image used by the media is the 1972 photograph of Kim Phuc. It shows her escaping a village that has recently been bombed, her clothes and skin being burnt off by napalm. The media uses these images to influence Australians that may have never seen such horror.

Due to the media being highly involved in the Vietnam War, many Australian's saw what the soldiers were doing in the war. This lead to quite a number of anti-war protests, some even involving politicians and celebrities. The moratoriums became so large that the government were forced to listen to the concerns of the protesters.

Australia's involvement in the Vietnam war ended in 1972. After sending in around forty-seven thousand troops, five hundred didn't come back. There were many differing views of Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War; some believed that the war was unorthodox, while others believed it was absolutely crucial to stop the threat of communism from reaching Australia. But whether Australia's presence in the Vietnam War was necessary or not, communism never reached our shores.