What were the reasons for Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War

Explain why Australia became involved in the Vietnam War.

The 29th of April 1965 was a pivotal moment in Australian military history. In parliament, Robert Menzies proposed his arguments for sending Australian troops into South Vietnam and subsequently announced that Australia would be joining the United States in the Vietnam War. He believed that Australia’s allies would need help and that it was best to stop the spread of communism before it reached Australia: a forward defence technique. The pressure and increasing fear of communism amongst the Australian public would have also influenced parliament. Although faced with opposition, the proposition advanced, and later that year, the first 800 Australian troops were dispatched to Vietnam.

One of Menzies’ arguments was that Australia’s allies, specifically America, would require our help in the fight against communism in South Vietnam. At the start of the conflict, America had appealed towards its allies for help, particularly SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation), but also ANZUS (Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty), in actively supporting the containment of communism. In his speech, Prime Minister Menzies said, “as well as providing guarantees and assurances for our security, make demands upon us”. Australia realised that if we did not come to the aid of America in their time of need, then America would not do the same for us. It was a risk that we could not afford to take, as after WW2, Australia had made itself essentially dependent of US military aid. Therefore, Australia involved itself in the Vietnam War partially because of requests for help from the allied United States.

Forward defence was another tactic that was employed when Australian troops were sent to Vietnam. The government’s defence policy was founded upon this concept. The ideology behind this was simple and effective in that, by fighting potential enemies overseas, we would be preventing a war occurring on Australian soil. This strategy had already been implemented previously in the Korean War and the government decided that this situation was extremely similar: a small, divided, Asian country being attacked by communist forces from within. Australia hoped that by sending troops to the battle in Vietnam, the communist forces would be stopped at its root and not reach Australian shores.

Australia in the 1950s and 60s was seized with fear of and expanding communist regime. The possibility of communism spreading to Australia from Asia was becoming increasingly more likely and the topic was being regarded with more concern. Many people saw South Vietnam as, geographically, a direct neighbour to Australia and feared the domino effect, seen previously with the takeover of other small Asian countries. They believed that once South Vietnam fell to the communists, Australia would be next in line and extremely vulnerable. Menzies made a similar comment, “the takeover of South Vietnam would be a direct military threat to Australia,” in his address in parliament. This conclusion terrorised the Australian public, especially in light of the preceding events during the Petrov Affair where Australia had its first encounter of communism close to home. The feeling of being isolated and exposed in the middle of the ocean surrounded by communist nations frightened us enough for the government to send troops into South Vietnam to try to stop the path of the communist regime.

In conclusion, during the 1950s and 60s Australia was becoming increasingly concerned about the oncoming communist invasion as it was reaching closer and closer to Australian shores, finally arriving in Australia’s close geographical neighbour, South Vietnam. The domino effect and notion of an inevitable communist attack upon Australian shores scared the government enough to send Australia to fight in the Vietnam War in an effort to stop the impending communist force. America involvement also played a part in influencing this decision, as Australia wished to remain allies with a country as militarily strong as the United States.