Vietnam War
- The Vietnam War was the longest major conflict in which Australians have been involved
- Lasted ten years, from 1962 to 1972
- Involved some 60,000 personnel.
- A limited initial commitment of just 30 military advisers grew to include a battalion in 1965 and finally, in 1966, a task force.
- Each of the three services was involved, but the dominant role was played by the Army.
- In the early years Australia’s participation in the war was not widely opposed.
- As commitment grew, as conscripts began to make up large percentage of those being deployed and killed, as public increasingly came to believe the war was being lost, opposition grew until, in the early 1970s, more than 200,000 people marched in the streets of Australia’s major cities in protest.
- South Vietnamese fought on for just over three years before the capital, Saigon, fell to North Vietnamese forces in April 1975
- Bringing an end to the war which by then had spilled over into neighbouring Cambodia and Laos.
- Millions lost their lives
- Millions more were made refugees and the disaster that befell the region continues to reverberate today.
- For Australia the Vietnam War was the cause of the greatest social and political dissent since the conscription referenda of the First World War
- The Australian veterans were very much rejected by the people and the government after returning and did not receive a welcome home parade until 1987, 15 years after the last soldier and national servicemen left Vietnam.
- The parade was held on October 3.
- Government did not admit that defoliants such as Agent Orange had disastrous health effects on the veterans until 1992, when they finally accepted research that proved there were links between Agent Orange and health problems suffered by the veterans.
Vietnamese Boat People
- "Boat people is a term that usually refers to refugees or asylum seekers who emigrate in numbers in boats that are sometimes old and crudely made. The term came into common use during the late 1970s with the mass departure of Vietnamese refugees from Communist-controlled Vietnam, following the Vietnam War." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boat_people
- Some countries in the region, such as Malaya, turned the boat people away even if they did manage to land.
- Boats carrying refugees were deliberately sunk offshore by those in them to stop authorities towing them back out to sea.
- Many of refugees ended up settling in the United States and Europe.
- United States accepted 823,000 refugees; Britain accepted 19,000; France accepted 96,000; Australia and Canada accepted 137,000 each.
White Australia Policy
"The White Australia policy comprises various historical policies that intentionally restricted "non-white" immigration to Australia from 1901 to 1973. The end of the White Australia policy came in 1975." - google definitions
Websites used:http://vietnam-war.commemoration.gov.au/vietnam-war/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_veteran
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/vietnam_boat_people.htm
