Essay On Australia's Involvement In The Vietnam War

In Australian history, the Vietnam war holds the record for being the war in which Australia contributed to for the longest period time. Tens of thousands of civilians offered their assistance to the armed forces, in order to defend the country they had grown to love. Australia, in tandem with other countries, were successful in their efforts and were able to strengthen relationships and better reputations while doing so.

Young country, Australia, was in a way, forced into participating in the Vietnam war. After WWI, strong alliances were formed with the United States of America (U.S.A.) as the views had shifted and the U.S.A. became the stronger country. This alliance also came with an agreement to maintain very important and specific policies.

The RAAF’s involvement in the Vietnam war began in the mid 1960’s, with very few helicopter operations. Despite the unsatisfactory nature of the vehicles’ security (the vehicles were not armoured and members were tole that flak jackets should be ‘scrounged’ from the Americans) the squadron quickly became able to carry out more important and crucial tasks, including logistic support, dropping leaflets over enemy territory and most famously, aerial sprays to both rid bases of insects and destroy vegetation in enemy territory. Just two moths after the squadrons arrival, the helicopters were ordered to drop ammunition on troops and their role in the war suddenly became of a significantly more violent nature. At day, the helicopters would fire, at night they would recover wounded soldiers whose recovery was in the best interests of the Europeans and continued to do so until 1967, when the squadron was re-equipped with aircrafts of a higher standard. Now with 16 helicopters, the RAAF was able to join the Royal Australian Navy Helicopters and the U.S. air forces in dangerous tasks such as transporting men to and from patrols and evacuating wounded soldiers from the battlefields. The death of helicopter operators and the destruction of aircrafts, although unfortunate, was not an uncommon occurrence while completing these tasks. This helicopter squadron, the 9th squadron, the most

They fought for their newly white country, the same country that belittled them and achieved highly when doing so. It is said that during their time spent in uniform, the only feature to distinguish their experience from that of the white Australian, was the sense of mateship and egalitarianism. While fighting, the indigenous people were experienced equality than they did in their own home. The armed forces were entirely lacking in racist methods of organisation. Instead, any soldiers of coloured background were integrated with those of non-coloured backgrounds. The war not only provided a sense of welcome, but an education. Most of the indigenous war contributors were also members of the stolen generation and despite being educated, were not done so to an adequate extent. Their presence allowed them to expand on their knowledge so that upon returning home, they were capable of obtaining better jobs and a higher position in the communal hierarchy. Unfortunately, though, taking part in the war did not permanently or entirely erase the racism that was very much ingrained in society. Many soldiers, despite qualifying for awards, had their efforts left unrecognised, as they were not white enough to have truly earnt it, which only adds to the list of reasons that these people should be given the recognition they