Australia's Vietnam War

The Vietnam War was a conflict in which the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV, or North Vietnam) and its allies fought against the Republic of Vietnam (RVN, or South Vietnam) and its allies. South Vietnam's allies included the United States, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. US combat troops were involved from 1965 until their official withdrawal in 1973. Australian and New Zealand troops were involved from 1962 to 1973. The war ended on April 30, 1975 with the defeat and capitulation of South Vietnam and its allies.

Australia as an ally of the United States, with obligations under the SEATO and ANZUS Pacts sent ground troops to Vietnam and contributed material to the war effort. As a result, in late 1964 the Australian government controversially re-introduced conscription for compulsory military service by eligible males aged 18-25.

Australian Advisors, 1962-1972

After assisting in the Malayan Emergency, Australian and New Zealand military forces had gained valuable experience in jungle warfare and counter-insurgency. According to historian Paul Ham, US Secretary of State Dean Rusk “freely admitted to the ANZUS meeting in Canberra in May 1962, that the US armed forces knew little about jungle warfare”

During 1961 and 1962, Ngo Dinh Diem, President of the Republic of Vietnam, requested assistance from the US and its allies to improve South Vietnam's security. At the same time, the USA initiated the Many Flags program, hoping to counter the communist propaganda that Republic of Vietnam was merely a US puppet state and intending to involve as many nations as possible. The Australian government’s response was to send 30 military advisers, dispatched as the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV), also known as "the Team". The Australian military assistance was to be in jungle warfare training, and the Team comprised highly qualified and experienced officers and NCOs, led by Colonel Ted Serong, many with previous experience from the Malayan Emergency. Their arrival in South Vietnam during July and August 1962 was the beginning of Australia's involvement in the war in Vietnam.

Relationships between the AATTV and US advisors were generally very cordial. However, there were sometimes significant differences of opinion on the training and tactics that should be employed. For example, when Ted Serong expressed doubt about the value of the Strategic Hamlet Program at a US counter Insurgency Group meeting in Washington on May 23, 1963, he drew a “violent challenge” from US Marine General Victor ‘Brute’ Krulak.[6]. Captain Barry Peterson’s work with raising an anti-communist Montagnard force in the central highlands between 1962 and 1964 highlighted another problem – South Vietnamese officials sometimes found sustained success by a foreigner difficult to accept.

Warrant Officer Class 2, Kevin Conway of the AATTV, died on 6 July 1964, side by side with Master Sergeant Gabriel Alamo of the USSF during a sustained Viet Cong attack on Nam Dong Special Forces Camp, becoming Australia's first battle casualty.

Increased Australian commitment 1965-1970

In August 1964 the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) sent a flight of Caribou transports to the port town of Vung Tau.[10] By the end of 1964, there were almost 200 Australian military personnel in the Republic of Vietnam, including a engineer and surgical team as well as a larger AATTV team.

In April 1965, Australian Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies announced the government had received from South Vietnam a request for further military assistance. “We have decided…in close consultation with the Government of the United States – to provide an infantry battalion for service in Vietnam.” He argued that a communist victory in South Vietnam would be a direct military threat to Australia. “It must be seen as part of a thrust by Communist China between the Indian and Pacific Oceans” he added.

The 600 regular army soldiers of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment(1RAR) were attached to the US 173rd Airbone Brigade on arrival, participating in several operations in Bien Hoa province, in 1965. However, Australian and US military leaders agreed to future deployment of Australian combat forces in a discrete province. This also allowed the Australian army to "fight their own tactical war", independently of the US.  In April 1966 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) was established in Phuoc Tuy province, based at Nui Dat. 1ATF consisted of two (and after 1967 three) battalions, with various support services (1st Australian Logistics Support Group) based in Vung Tau. A squadron of Centurion tanks was added in December 1967. 1ATF's responsibility was the security of Phuoc Tuy province, excluding larger towns.

To boost the size of the Army by providing a greater pool for infantrymen, the Australian Government had introduced conscription for compulsory military service for 20 year olds, in November 1964, despite opposition from within the Army and many sections of the broader community. Thereafter, battalions serving with 1ATF all contained National Servicemen.

From an Australian Task Force perspective, one of the most famous engagements in the war was the Battle of Long Tan on 18 and 19 August 1966. It was a decisive Australian victory and is often cited as an example of the importance of combining and coordinating infantry, artillery, armour and military aviation.

Australia's peak commitment at any one time was 7672 combat troops and New Zealand's, 552, in 1969. New Zealand first committed a detachment of engineers and an artillery battery, and then started sending special forces. New Zealand infantry units were also integrated into RAR battalions serving with 1ATF after March 1968. These combined battalions being designated "ANZAC Battalions".

In total some 50,000 Australians, ground troops, air-force and naval personnel, served in Vietnam, between 1962 and 1972. 520 died as a result of the war and almost 2,400 were wounded.  19,450 conscripted national servicemen served from 1965 to 1972, sustaining 202 killed and 1,279 wounded.  Female members of the army and air-force nursing services served in Vietnam at the 1st Australian Field Hospital and on MEDEVACs (medical evacuation flights).

Australian counter-insurgency tactics

Historian Albert Palazzo comments that when the Australians entered the Vietnam war, it was with their own “well considered …concept of war”, and this was often contradictory or in conflict with US concepts.   The 1ATF light infantry tactics such as patrolling, searching villages without destroying them (with a view to eventually converting them), and ambush and counter ambush drew criticism from some US commanders. General William Westmoreland is reported to have complained to Major General Tim Vincent that 1ATF was “not being aggressive enough”.  ] By comparison, US forces sought to flush out the enemy and achieve rapid and decisive victory through “brazen scrub bashing” and the use of “massive firepower.”   Australians acknowledged they had much to learn from the US forces about heliborne assault and joint armour and infantry assaults. Yet the US measure of success -the body count – was apparently held in contempt by many 1ATF and battalion commanders.

In 1966 journalist Gerald Stone described tactics then being used by Australian soldiers newly arrived in Vietnam:

"The Australian battalion has been described …as the safest combat force in Vietnam… It is widely felt that the Australians have shown themselves able to give chase to the guerillas without exposing themselves to the lethal ambushes that have clamed so many American dead…

Australian patrols shun jungle tracks and clearings… picking their way carefully and quietly through bamboo thickets and tangled foliage… .It is a frustrating experience to trek through the jungle with Australians. Patrols have taken as much as nine hours to sweep a mile of terrain. They move forward a few steps at a time, stop, listen, then proceed again. "

Looking back on ten years of reporting the war in Vietnam and Cambodia, journalist Neil Davis said in 1983; "I was very proud of the Australian troops. They were very professional, very well trained and they fought the people they were sent to fight – the Viet Cong. They tried not to involve civilians and generally there were fewer casualties inflicted by the Australians."  Another perspective on Australian operations was provided by David Hackworth, Vietnam’s most decorated US soldier. "The Aussies used squads to make contact… and brought in reinforcements to do the killing; they planned in the belief that a platoon on the battlefield could do anything." 

For some Viet Cong leaders there was no doubt the Australian jungle warfare approach was effective. One former Viet Cong leader is quoted as saying; "Worse than the Americans were the Australians. The Americans style was to hit us, then call for planes and artillery. Our response was to break contact and disappear if we could…The Australians were more patient than the Americans, better guerilla fighters, better at ambushes. They liked to stay with us instead of calling in the planes. We were more afraid of their style"   However, as a junior partner, Australians had little opportunity to influence US strategy in the war. "The American concept [of how the war should be fought], remained unchallenged and it prevailed almost by default." 

Overall, the tactics used by the Australian Army in Vietnam were not successful. Like the Americans, Australian tactics were focused on seeking to engage the Communist forces in battle and ultimately failed as the Communists were generally able to evade Australian forces when conditions were not favourable. Moreover, the Australians did not devote sufficient resources to disrupting the logistical infrastructure which supported the Communist forces in Phuoc Tuy province and popular support for the Communists remained strong. After 1ATF was withdrawn in 1971 the insurgency in Phuoc Tuy province rapidly expanded.

Withdrawal of Australian forces

The Australian withdrawal can be seen as effectively commencing in November 1970, the first time an Australian unit was sent home without replacement. Australian combat forces were reduced during 1971.  On 18 August 1971, Australia and New Zealand decided to withdraw their troops from Vietnam.   Australian advisors of "the Team" continued to train Vietnamese troops however, until the announcement by the newly elected Australian Labor Government of Gough Whitlam that the remaining Advisors would be withdrawn by 18 December 1972. It was only on 11 January 1973 that the Governor-General of Australia, Paul Hasluck, announced the cessation of combat operations against the Vietnamese.  However, Australian troops remained in Saigon guarding the Australian embassy until 1 July 1973.  The withdrawal from Vietnam meant that 1973 was the first time since the beginning of World War II in 1939 that Australia's armed forces were not involved in a conflict somewhere in the world.

Elements of the Australian military returned to South Vietnam in 1975. In March 1975 the Australian Government decided to dispatch RAAF transport aircraft to the country to provide humanitarian assistance to refugees fleeing the North Vietnamese Ho Chi Minh Campaign. The first Australian C-130 Hercules arrived at Tan Son Nhat Airport on 30 March and the force, which was designated 'Detachment S' reached a strength of eight Hercules by the second week of April. Detachment S's aircraft transported refugees from cities near the front line and evacuated Australians and several hundred Vietnamese orphans from Saigon to Malaysia. In addition, they regularly flew supplies to a large refugee camp at An Thoi on the island of Phú Quốc.  The deteriorating security situation forced the Australian aircraft to be withdrawn to Bangkok in mid-April from where they continued to fly into South Vietnam each day. The last three RAAF flights into Saigon took place on 25 April when the Australian embassy was evacuated. While all Australians were evacuated, 130 Vietnamese who had worked at the embassy and had been promised evacuation were left behind.

Protests against the war

In Australia, resistance to the war was at first very limited, although the Australian Labor Party (in opposition for most of the period) steadfastly opposed conscription. However, anti-war sentiment escalated rapidly in the late 1960s as more and more Australian soldiers were killed in battle. The introduction of conscription by the Australian Government during the war also enraged some, and groups of people resisted the call to military service (which was punishable by imprisonment) by burning the letters notifying them of their conscription. Growing public uneasiness about the death toll was fuelled by a series of highly-publicised arrests of conscientious objectors, and exacerbated by shocking revelations of atrocities committed against Vietnamese civilians, leading to a rapid increase in domestic opposition to the war between 1967 and 1970.

On 8 May 1970, moratorium marches were held in major Australian cities to coincide with the marches in the USA. The demonstration in Melbourne, led by future deputy prime minister Jim Cairns, was supported by an estimated 100,000 people.  Across Australia, it was estimated that 200,000 people were involved.

Social attitudes and treatment of veterans

Service in the war was unpopular and opposition to it generated negative views of veterans in some quarters. In the years following the war, some Vietnam veterans experienced social exclusion and problems readjusting to society.

As the tour of duty of each soldier during the Vietnam War was limited to one year (although some soldiers chose to sign up for a second or even a third tour of duty), the number of soldiers suffering from combat stress was probably more limited than it might otherwise have been.

Some World War II veterans held negative views and attitudes toward the Vietnam War veterans and as a result many Australian Vietnam veterans were excluded from joining the Returned Servicemen's League during the 1960s and 1970s on the grounds that the Vietnam War veterans did not fight a "real war". Further, many Vietnam veterans were excluded from marching in the ANZAC Day parades during the 1970s because the soldiers of earlier wars saw the Vietnam veterans as unworthy heirs to the ANZAC title and tradition, a view which hurt many Vietnam veterans. Eventually, however, on 3 October 1987, Australian Vietnam veterans were honoured at a "Welcome Home" parade in Sydney and it was there that a campaign for a Vietnam memorial began.

The Vietnam Forces National Memorial located on ANZAC Parade in Canberra, was dedicated on October 3 1992.

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