Reasons for Australia’s Involvement in the Vietnam War Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War from 1962-1975 has been the country’s longest military involvement in duration of any war. The war mainly involved America and its allies, including Australia, aiming to protect South Vietnam from the communist North Vietnam. Australia’s main reason for involvement in the Vietnam War is the country’s fear of communism and consequently, the ‘Domino Theory’. Australia also felt the need to commit military support for America during this war due to the ANZUS alliance and SEATO alliance. Furthermore, another reason was to follow the government’s defence policy of ‘Forward Defence’ in order to protect the country.
U.S. Involvement in Vietnam By: Courtney Comstock The Cold War was a war that had many smaller battles that took place in it. The overall two countries at war were the U.S. and the U.S.S. R. The U.S. and the U.S.S.R. were at war because the U.S. had a capitalist government ran country, while the U.S.S.R. had a communist government ran country. The Vietnam War that took place in the Cold War was that the North and South were divided on the 17th Parallel because of communism. Many people ask the question, “Why did the U.S. even care about the Vietnam conflict, let alone fight a war there?” One Reason for U.S. involvement in the Vietnam conflict was that the U.S. feared the Domino Theory.
The idea of “containment” and not letting the Soviet Union gain influence and control of the region was perhaps the biggest and only factor for the United States assistance in South Vietnam. In its quest for world supremacy, the US felt it had to do anything in its power to ensure that they would remain on top, even if it meant fighting the Soviets in proxy wars like that of Korea and Vietnam. From a strategic and political view, the war was an absolutely necessary and even though many feel the US had lost, they were better off than had they just remained passive and allowed Communism to spread. More than anything, the Vietnam War was a message to the rest of the world that the US could, and more importantly would, engage in conflict in attempt to ensure that democracy remain the prevalent political and economical ideology existent across the
But one of the hardest battle’s for the US was to keep their own countries support. In this essay I will be exploring the main factors of the Vietnam war between 1960-1975, looking at how they changed before, during and after ORT. Before ORT took place the aims of the US Government were to stop communist taking over South Vietnam (SV). As they feared that the Domino Theory would affect countries who were still capitalist. The rise in communist countries was increasing as other countries close to each other would follow the same route as nearby countries.
The conflicts between the North and the South Vietnam increased along with the Viet Cong rebels. The North Vietnam threatened South Vietnam that they will take over and make the communist. Even with the help of the United States, the South Vietnam wasn’t able to win. For both wars, the main reason for U.S. involvement was to follow the policy of United States that they will stop communist from spreading. There are many differences between the two wars.
America, as Harman describes, was seemingly invincible, until its involvement in the Vietnam War. In the 1950s, France had already been at war which divided Vietnam into the North and South. France was backed by the U.S. who funded a majority of the war effort and helped take over South Vietnam. But according to Harman, “The US was trapped in a war of attrition from which there was no easy way out,” (Harman 572). He sees the Vietnam War on the whole as not only a waste of time, men, and resources for the Americans, but also a cause of “huge fissures …in US society” (Harman 572).
(The Cold War) The Cold war term is used to show the relationship between America and the Soviet Union 1945 to 1980. The United States never fought the Soviet Union because it could have led to nuclear war, but they did ‘fight’ each other using other countries who fought for their beliefs on their behalf namely, South Vietnam that was anticommunist and was supplied by America during the war. North Vietnam was pro-Communist and fought the south (and the Americans) using weapons from communist Russia or communist
The Vietminh fought for their freedom. As the Vietminh began to defeat the French, the French did not prevent the communist North Vietnamese from reaching South Vietnam. (use source #1) According to the “Statement Issued by the White House”, the President assigned an ambassador to Vietnam “to coordinate the operations of all US agencies in that country. “Since the conclusion of hostilities in Indochina, the US Government has been particularly concerned over developments in Vietnam.” Even as early as 1954, before the Vietnam war had began, the US was concerned about what was happening. The US saw that the situation in Vietnam was something that needed to be flagged and
The hawks and doves were complete opposites, the hawk’s argument concluded that America must win the war in Vietnam in order to contain communism in Southeast Asia and preserve the nation’s prestige (Davidson-Gienapp-Heyrman-Lytle-Stroff, 2005). The doves on the other hand wanted the conflict in Vietnam ended immediately and the troops returned home. The political and social outcomes facing the United States because of the conflict in Vietnam ranged from a growing distrust of the decisions being made by the political leaders to the ever increasing cost of the conflict in Vietnam. The growing distrust helped to fuel the student unrest because the younger generation decided to voice their opinions and take a stand for those
In 1950 Australia was involved in the Vietnam War, as there was alliance with the Americans and involvement with Seato and Anzus. Australia believed it was there call to send troops to Vietnam due to alliance with American as they feared of the spreading of communism. The Vietnam War was broadcasted all over the world, for the first time people were viewing what was really involved in the War, this affected peoples mind with conscription, this left a big controversy with many people were both for and against. This lead to a protest called the moratoriums protest; this was the biggest division in society. When the first World Wat occurred in 1914, conscription was brought to discuss either young men would have to be forced to be involved