How Did The Vietnam War Affect Australia

The Vietnam War was one of the deadliest and long lasting wars of the 20th century; lasting 20 years from November 1955, ending in April 1975. Initially, the Vietnamese fought for independence from France and won in 1954 though the country was split into two ideologies, the communist North and the republican South. North Vietnam supported the Viet Cong insurgencies in the South resulting in the start of the war. The United States, Australia and other nations were directly involved in the fighting to defend South Vietnam from the Viet Cong and North Vietnam. The war eventually came to a stalemate until the North Vietnamese launched a surprise attack known as the Tet Offensive which proved to be the pivotal and decisive moment of the war. Though,

Immigration from Vietnam to Australia was widespread and still continues to happen. In an article published by data journalist Jason Thomas quotes “In the seven years ending in 1982 Australia accepted close to 60,000 Vietnamese refugees, most via plane however there was a huge public disapproval by some Australians due to the cultural differences.” (Jason Thomas, 2015, Online). This indicates the significance of Vietnamese immigrants who sought refuge within Australia despite the amount of discontentment. Many of the Vietnamese refugees became Australian citizens and progressed to become a part of Australia’s identity. At the time of the Vietnam War, Australia reinstated conscription to increase the ADF’s (Australian Defence Force) manpower. Though this legislation came with a stern opposition. Nick Irving who has a PhD in history comments within his article “Between 100,000 and 200,000 people thronged the streets of the country's capital cities, emphatically announcing that they did not support their government's involvement in the Vietnam War, or conscription of the nation's youth to fight it.”(Nick Irving, 2010, Online). This demonstrates the enormous amount of discouragement the public had within the matter of conscripting young men to go to a war many thought Australia should not have been involved in the first place. The Vietnam War socially effected Australia

According to Brian Ross a historian focused on Australian politics wrote in 1995 “The reasons as to why Australia became involved in the Vietnam War is painted in the colours of ‘collective security’ and as part of the anti-Communist "crusade" to contain a worldwide communist threat.” (Australia’s Involvement in the Vietnam War, the Political Dimension, 1, 2). This indicates Australia’s perspective of communism in that it is a threat to Australia’s national security and a direct danger to its democratic and capitalistic ideological view. Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Richard Casey announced to Australia that “If the whole of Indochina fell to the communists, Thailand would be gravely exposed. If Thailand were to fall, the road would be open to Malaya and Singapore. From the Malay Peninsula the communists could dominate the northern approaches to Australia, and even cut our lifelines with Europe.” (John Rae, 2011, Online) This implies that Australia feared the domino theory in that if one country became communist the others neighbouring countries would then be soon be communist as well. This was a huge fear within Australian politics as Vietnam was a country situated in close geography with