Australians's Role In The Anti-Vietnam War

Australians played a large role in what was one of the longest wars of the twentieth century. They had a mass group of 60000 soldiers that only began from a small number. From 1962 -1966 they accumulated a battalion, a group of 30 military advisers and a task force. This provided more support but was largely assisted by the army. In the beginning it was not disputed but as the results came back, the Australian society was starting to gather a new perspective to what was going on.

After Vietnam was divided into north and south there were elections that were supposed to take place but did not because they feared that there were too many spies in the area. The South Vietnamese were on alert as they were constantly threatened by a communist …show more content…
Australians initial thoughts on conscription were that 70% agreed but it meant that when a certain day of any month was picked you would be in the army. One of the issues was that originally National Service meant that the conscripts would only fight on Australian territory, which was then changed without consent in 1966 so that they were forced to fight in other countries. This had caused people’s views to change on Australians going to war. Anti-conscription groups were congregated and divisions were forming over Australia. Three of these groups that formed were the Youth Campaign against Conscription (YCAC), The Australian Labor Party (ALP) and Save Our Sons which had come together after the change that expanded the troops going to …show more content…
Some of veterans of the war were undertaking social exclusion and were finding it hard to come to terms with society. There were also many Second World War veterans that had opposing views and opinions towards the Vietnam veterans. All of this negativity had led to the exclusion of Australian Vietnam veterans from the RSL between the 1960s and 1970s because people believed that they did not serve in a real war. The reply of the RSL was diverse across the country, as some people lost all respect for the veterans there were some groups in rural areas that turned out to be supportive. Regardless, as a result of previous war veteran’s perspectives, seeing them as unworthy of the ANZAC title and tradition, many Vietnam veterans were not allowed to march in ANZAC Day parades during the 1970s. This had caused widespread bitterness towards the RSL. In 1972 the RSL finally decided that Vietnam veterans would lead the march, which invited mass crowds from around the