Australia's Vietnam War

Front Cover
Texas A&M University Press, 2002 - History - 218 pages
Today the mere mention of Vietnam conjures up images of protest in American streets and tensions so strong they divided a country. Yet the United States did not fight alone. Comparatively little is known about Australia's experience-its motives for entering the conflict, national support for Australia's role there, and how that nation dealt with the aftermath of war. Here, Jeff Doyle, Jeffrey Grey, and Peter Pierce chronicle Australia's complicated involvement in Vietnam.

Australia's decision to participate in the conflict was part of a collective Western effort to stop Communist expansion. It was also a price willingly paid for assurances of American intervention in the event of an Indonesian attack on Australia.

Through an evaluation of the literature arising from Vietnam, the manner in which Australia memorialized its fallen veterans, and other expressions of the war's influences, this book offers important insights into the healing process nations face following such conflicts.

From inside the book

Contents

Some Reflections on the Australian Governments
3
The Australian Army and the Vietnam War
16
Reading and Building the Australian Vietnam Forces
136
Copyright

3 other sections not shown

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2002)

Jeffrey Grey was born on March 19, 1959. He was an Australian military historian and author. His books included A Military History of Australia and A Soldier's Soldier. He also edited the Oxford Companion to Australian Military History, the Oxford Australian Centenary History of Defence series, and the Oxford Centenary History of Australia and the Great War series. He founded the Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict at the University of New South Wales Canberra. He was a professor at the Australian Defence Force Academy. He died on July 26, 2016 at the age of 57.