Thursday, April 28, 2005
Australia's role in the Vietnam war
To someone like me who grew up knowing nothing about Australia other than platypi, marsupials and a tremendous cricket team, this article is certainly an eye-opener on the attitudes of its political class. For now, I'm taking this with a grain of salt, though, since Sexton's viewpoint might well be a strongly partisan one. I hope readers more familiar with Australia will comment.Australia's diplomats in Washington told the Americans that the bombing of North Vietnam should be increased. In early January 1965 Hasluck was concerned that the Americans might opt for negotiations with the North Vietnamese. He cabled the Australian embassy in Washington to urge them to "take advantage of whatever opportunity may arise of helping to bring certainty to American policy and planning". The "certainty" that Hasluck wanted was escalation. In February the State Department said it was under "some pressure" from the Australian government to make a request for troops.
This was a particularly cynical exercise by the Australian government because it is clear that it was quite indifferent to the survival of South Vietnam or its people but simply wanted to lock the Americans into the ANZUS treaty in case of trouble with Indonesia. The first American combat troops landed in Vietnam in March 1965. On April 29, 1965, Menzies announced in Parliament that an Australian battalion would be joining them.
