How Did The Vietnam War Change Australian Society

It’s traditionally perceived that Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War was the event/action that caused Australian society to change. The Vietnam War was the major push or an impetus for change in Australia and gave the new counterculture great momentum that eventually helped the counterculture to challenge the government and contribute to change in Australia. The result was a dramatic change in Australia’s society, irrevocably changing the once conservative culture to today’s modern multi-cultural society. The Vietnam War was the spark that brought large reactions from the people of Australia; who reacted with protests and adopted lifestyles that challenged the dominant society of that era. As a result of the Vietnam War and the counterculture Australia was irrevocably changed from the once conservative society to the new multicultural society.
Australia was involved in the Vietnam War because of two main factors; one was fear of communism and the other was due to the ANZUS treaty. After the victory of World War 2 communism was fast spreading, and creeped its way into Vietnam. According to many sources, Australia thought that if communism would continue to spread further south, that eventually Australia would succumb to communism; this was also known as the domino effect and is one of the reason Australia attempted to halt the communism advanced in South Vietnam (History, n.d.). The ANZUS treaty was a treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United states; the treaty stated that if one of these places would be attacked the other would come to its aid; this also meant that they had to aid each in offensive wars as well. As a result of this treaty when America sent troops into Vietnam Australia also had to do the same, to aid the Americans.