The Effect of the Vietnam War on the Australian Society

The Effect of the Vietnam War on the Australian Society

The Vietnam War had great political impact and led to deep division

within Australian society. The Australian people were forced to take

the issues about the Cold War, Vietnam and the arms race seriously

because of Australia’s military involvement in Vietnam from 1962 to

1972. As a result, our fear of communism and of Asia increased

dramatically.

Australia, occupying a large mass of land, yet having a small

population had always lived in the belief that they were threatened

some way by the foreign powers and this led to the formation of “The

White Australia Policy”, which was set up in 1901. This policy clearly

reflects the enormous fear of threats from the Asian countries.

Another major belief Australia had was that it could never adequately

defend itself but had to look for support from other countries such as

The Great Britain and the United States, which the Prime Minister,

Robert Menzies called “Our Great & Powerful Friends”.

During the World War II when the war broke out in 1939, Australia

still saw itself as an important part of the British Empire and

immediately declared its support for Britain. On the other hand, there

was always the understanding throughout Australia that if the time

ever came when Australia needed military support, Britain would come

to the nation’s aid. In 1940, the British Government had doubts that

Japan would advance into South-East Asia but when it happened, Britain

then expressed doubts that Japan would mount an invasion of Australia.

With the fall of Singapore in 1942, Britain’s assumptions proven

wrong, Australia was automatically threa...

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... and the Vietnamese soldiers used

underground passages & forest bushes as tactics to eliminate the

whites taking advantage of being small and short, and ‘not to be seen’

in the bushes. After several years of fierce battle, during 1969 and

1970, the Australian government started to withdraw men.

The size of the Australian forces were never great compared to the US

troops, Australian troops numbering 8300, while the US held the

enormous army of 720,000. This was not important to them but what was

important was their close relationship & alliance as a political

support to each other, and once again Australia was able to identify

its powerful national ally. However, this time Australia’s great and

powerful friend was not its traditional mother country Britain, but a

new national, loyal ally, the United States of America.