Vietnam War
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The Vietnam War was one of the longest and toughest wars Australia had ever been involved in. The Vietnam War took place from 1962 to 1972. It was fought between communist North Vietnam against capitalist South Vietnam. Australia and America also disagreed with the ideology of communism and joined South Vietnamese in the attempt to stop the spread of communism. Whilst Australian soldiers were fighting in Vietnam there were mixed opinions back home about their involvement in the war. The support and opposition of the war lead to rioting and protests across the country.
The war originated when communist North Vietnamese wanted to join North and South Vietnam as one communist dictatorship, taking South Vietnam away from the French colonisation. During this time the USA and the USSR were in the cold war conflict over communism and capitalism ideologies. To show there support against communism America joined the South Vietnamese and fought to resist a communist takeover by the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong Guerrilla soldiers, who were supporters of communism within South Vietnam. Australia became involved in the war in the early 1960s. Australia feared that if South Vietnam fell to communism other countries such as Cambodia and Laos would also become communist and surrounding countries would fall like dominoes into communism until Australia too would fall to communism, this idea is known as the ÐDomino theory. This theory influenced the current PM, Robert Menzies to reintroduce conscription into parliament in 1964 and by June 1965 Australia sent their first battalion off to Vietnam. Australia also felt obliged to join the war due to there longstanding alliance with the USA since World War II.
The Vietnam War was very different to previous wars Australia had fought in. The use of jungle warfare proved tough for Australian soldiers as they had to cope with rough terrain such as thick jungle and swampy areas. The Australians were generally based at Nui Dat in the southern region of Phouc Tuy. The aim for the Australians was to hold back the enemy and to slowly take control of the area by the use of; search and destroy missions, ambushing an enemy and cutting off their supply of sources such as food, money, ammunition etc. Not only did the soldiers have to deal with the strenuous terrain, they also had to be aware of booby traps set by the Viet Cong Guerrilla soldiers. The Viet Cong built large underground tunnels in which they had dormitories, hospitals, and weaponry storehouses. By night the Viet Cong would launch their attacks on unsuspecting soldiers.
The government of Australia gave its complete support to the South Vietnamese and at the beginning of the war the majority of the Australian public also supported the war. Many were supportive of the fact that Australians were going to help stop the global spread of communism. Very little opposed conscription when it was first introduced however this changed when people realised that conscript soldiers would most