Australia and the Vietnam War

Peter Edwards

• Publisher: NewSouth
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781742246697
• Edition: 0
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Vietnam War
• Index: History

In this landmark book, award-winning historian Peter Edwards skillfully unravels the complexities of the global Cold War, decolonization in Southeast Asia, and Australian domestic politics. The Vietnam War was Australia's longest and most controversial military commitment of the 20th century, ending in humiliation for the United States and its allies with the downfall of South Vietnam. The war provoked deep divisions in Australian society and politics, particularly because for the first time young men were conscripted for overseas service in a highly contentious ballot system. The Vietnam era is still identified with diplomatic, military, and political failure. Was Vietnam a case of Australia fighting "other people's wars"? Were we really "all the way" with the United States? How valid was the "domino theory"? Did the Australian forces develop new tactical methods in earlier Southeast Asian conflicts, and just how successful were they against the unyielding enemy in Vietnam? This book provides new, often surprising, answers to these questions.

Table of contents

• Cover
• About the Author
• Copyright
• CONTENTS
• PREFACE
• ABBREVIATIONS
• CHRONOLOGY
• 1. Decolonisation and the Cold War in Southeast Asia 1945–50
• 2. Australia and Southeast Asia 1945–53
• 3. Australia and Southeast Asia 1954–60
• 4.The Crises of the early 1960s
• Photos
• 5. Commitments to Confrontation and Vietnam 1965
• 6. The Task Force and th Elelection 1966
• 7. Escalation of the Commitment, Escalation of Controversy 1967
• 8. The Turning-Point 1968–69
• 9. Social Dissent, Political Division and Military Withdrawal 1969–72
• 10. The Whitlam Government and the End of the Vietnam War 1972–75
• 11. Lessons, Legacies and Legends
• APPENDIX
• NOTES
• FURTHER READING
• INDEX