Australia's Involvement In The Vietnam War Analysis

Explain the reasons why Australia became involved in the Vietnam War
Australia had multiple reasons which led to her involvement in the Vietnam War. Australia’s involvement consisted of four critical reasons that made young Australians to go to war in Vietnam. The fact that communism was in Australia gave many Australian citizens an internal fear. This brought Australians to resist communism in Vietnam and support the War. Australia became enthusiastic to support their alliances, where they requested for Australia to be involved in the War. All these reasons show Australia’s commitment to be involved in the Vietnam War.
To begin with Australia had an internal fear of communism which led to Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War. Due to the acts of the CPA (communist party of Australia) it made many Australians oppose communism. Furthermore the
Petrov affair showed Australia that communism is a threat to Australians and the country itself. To sum up because of these reasons it made it the more likely for Australia to be involved in the Vietnam War.
Moreover, the spread of communism and its control overseas brought Australia to be involved in the Vietnam War.
Before the Vietnam War, Australia went to war in Korea (Korean War) to fight against communism in Korea where the communist completely dominated the North Korean Region. Additionally Vietnam is a ‘key domino’ to knocking down Australia in the Domino Theory and as a result PM Menzies brought forth Forward Defence to Vietnam. Overall, it shows that Australian would be involved in the Vietnam War to fend off and stop the spread of communism.
Another reason Australia became involved in the Vietnam War is her alliances with other countries. During World War Two Australia experienced difficulties fighting against the Japanese and the United States came and assisted Australia, as a result Australia thought of the U.S as a bigger brother. To increase support from America, Australia were the first to put their hand up to help aid the U.S in the Vietnam War and set up ANZUS ( Australia, New Zealand ,United States). This shows that Australia is eager to improve their alliances and be involved in the Vietnam
War. Finally and foremost, a request for Australia from the South Vietnamese Government made it the more probable that Australia will be involved in the Vietnam War. Prime Minister Menzies states that the SVG (South Vietnamese Government) requested for Australia to come to South Vietnam and fight off of the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army. Australia immediately prepared and sent advisors and troops to Vietnam to fulfil the request. All in all, Australia’s loyalty to their big brother, ‘United States’ brought forth a stronger alliance and supported the SVG to be involved in the Vietnam War. Additionally Australia’s internal fear of communism and the threat of it overseas made it more expected for Australians to go to War in Vietnam and fight against Communism. To sum up, these reasons revolved around communism and therefore created the high interest of Australia to be involved in the Vietnam War.