EARLY SUPPORT FOR THE WAR

Created by Laura Molesworth and Neil Beedie

Additions made by Jo Feng and Tommy Liang

* On 3rd August 1962, 30 Australian Military Advisors were sent to train in South Vietnamese Forces - this unified Australia's commitment to Vietnam.

* The conclusion to this commitment was in June 1973, when the last Australian troops were withdrawn.

* The Vietnam war was the longest war Australia was ever involved in.

1. Australian Task Force, Phuoc Tuy Province        2. Nine year old, Kim Phuc, running down a road near Trang Bang after an VNAF napalm attack, her skin badly burned                                                                                                        by napalm. The photograph shocked the world and changed the course of the war.

To stem the spread of communism in Europe and Asia, Australian support for South Vietnam in the early 1960s was in keeping with the policies of other nations, particularly the United States. In 1961 and 1962 the leader of the government in South Vietnam, Ngo Dinh Diem, repeatedly requested security assistance from the US and its allies. Australia responded with 30 military advisors, dispatched as the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV). In August 1964 the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) also sent a flight of Caribou transports to the port town of Vung Tau.

(There was, by the way, substantial support for a stronger war effort, especially early in the war.  For instance, in a poll conducted in February 1968, 25 per cent wanted to "gradually broaden and intensify our military operations", and 28 per cent wanted to "start an all-out crash effort in the hope of winning the war quickly even at the risk of China or Russia entering the war".  Just 24 per cent wanted to "discontinue the struggle and begin to pull out of Vietnam gradually in the near future", and 10 per cent wanted to "continue the war at the present level of military effort".  So, much of the disatisfaction about the war came, early on, from the belief that not enough was being done to win it.)

By early 1965 the US government requested further support from friendly countries in the region, including Australia because a major escalation of the war commenced. The Australian government dispatched the 1st Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) in June 1965 to serve alongside the US 173rd Airborne Brigade in Bien Hoa province.

The following year the Australian government felt that Australia's involvement in the conflict should be both strong and identifiable. In March 1966 the government announced the dispatch of a stronger taskforce, replacing the 1RAR, to be based at Nui Dat, Phuoc Tuy province. In August 1966 a large company was engaged in one of Australia's heaviest actions of the war, near Long Tan. After three hours of fierce fighting, eighteen Australians were killed and 24 wounded. The battle eliminated communist dominance over the province.