The Vietnam War

[Extract] The Vietnam War was one of Australia’s longest and most divisive conflicts, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were as involved as non-Indigenous people were. Australia sent its first group of 30 military advisors to South Vietnam in 1962, as the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam. A major escalation of Australia’s commitment came in June 1965 when, at the request of the US government, Australia sent the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1RAR) to support the US 173rd Airborne Brigade. In March 1966 Australia moved its enlarged Vietnam taskforce to the newly constructed Nui Dat base in Phuoc Tuy Province, south-west of Saigon. It was here that the majority of Australian soldiers served, although medical units and smaller contingents of RAAF and Navy personnel were based in the coastal town of Vung Tau. This town would also be the site of Australian soldiers’ rest and convalescence leave and the accompanying drinking, brawls and sexual encounters with local women (not to mention with other American and Australian men). As the US slowly withdrew its forces under the auspices of Vietnamisation, so too did Australia begin to draw down its troops from late 1970. The final Australians left Nui Dat in November 1971, and the last combat troops withdrew by December 1972. Throughout this entire period, 1962 to 1973, nearly 60 000 Australians served in Vietnam; there were over 3000 wounded and 521 killed in action.

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