Why did australia become involved in the Vietnam war?

Because of the treaties between the US and Oz, most significantly the ANZUS treaty. Also, there was a fear of communism in aussie and its proximity to Vietnam and the fact they had a war-ready force meant they were ideal participants (the US and South Vietnam requested their assistance).

I've had the pleasure of meeting an Australian army veteran who served in Vietnam and he has a very simple explanation for Australia's involvement: the Domino Theory. The belief was that, if a country fell to communism, its neighbours would be next to fall, just like dominoes. Australia was basically afraid that, if they didn't act soon, they could follow South East Asia and become communist. It was all because they were so close to an area where the ideology of the USSR had spread so rapidly - think of China and North Korea which both fell around 1950!

The ANZUS Treaty drew the US, Australia and New Zealand together and our Antipodean friends have always honoured their treaties.

Aside from this they must have had an eye to the Domino Theory and if you look at the relative positions of Australia and Vietnam and the short distance between them, you can see why. It would be relatively easy to infiltrate large numbers of troops into the far north of Australia and give the Communists a foothold that would not be easily shrugged off. And if there was one thing the Australians didn't need it was a Viet Cong style guerilla force in their Northern Territories.

The ANZUS treaty did not oblige Australia to assist the US in Vietnam; it only requires assistance when one of the countries is attacked.

However Australia assisted in Vietnam mainly to keep in with the US. Also, a lot of policymakers in Australia accepted the view of communism as an ideology which would be advanced by military force from country to country unless it was stopped (the "domino theory"), and if the whole of south-east Asia fell to communism, Indonesia was next, and then . . .

I didn't know about this before, so I checked it out.

Let's go back to World War II. As you may or may not recall, Great Britain, of which Australia was a dominion, was in a tight spot in the war in Europe with Nazi Germany. In 1940-41 Hitler was attacking by air and preparing for a land invasion of Britain. Meanwhile, the Japanese were taking more and more European colonies in the Pacific, and were preparing to invade Australia. The US was doing badly, too, after Pearl Harbor and losing the Philippines, the main US base in that region. Since Churchill couldn't help, the Australians turned to the Americans. Thanks to them (Battle of Coral Sea), the farthest the Japanese ever got was the bombing of Darwin. This was formed the basis of US-Australia relations for the next 30 years.

Fast forward to the Vietnam War. The entire West was generally behind the US in its Cold War with the USSR and Communist bloc; this included Australia. But Australians had been particularly close with the US, and so their government decided to support Lyndon B. Johnson during the war with troops. As you might expect, the Australian people grew as disenchanted as Americans, and pulled out.

After that, Australia decided to get closer to Asia, its neighbor, and reformed immigration. Later on it also reconciled with the US...and got involved in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Australia replaced into the main suitable domino interior the line of domino's commencing with South Vietnam. If (or whilst) South Vietnam fell it replaced into absolute to (and did) carry down Laos and Cambodia. interior the previous due 50s this positioned Thailand in hazard. Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines all had lively Communist insurgencies on the time, and the fall of South Vietnam gave the impression to be the commencing up of a great cascade which might very probable develop into an avalanche geared in the direction of Australia. Australia sounds like a protracted way faraway from Southeast Asia on the instant, yet interior the previous due 50s China, with its extensive manpower materials, backed by using the technologies of the U.S. gave the impression to be a stable candidate to march down the island chains of SEA and roll into Australia. Critics on the instant smugly push aside the domino concept, yet in 1954 it replaced into no longer almost relatively hassle-free to be cavalier on the subject of the opportunities failing to block the unfold of Communism might carry approximately. For u.s. in might desire to recommend nuclear destruction, for Australia Chines invasion. And the size of WW II replaced right into a contemporary reminiscence for the management who weren't approximately to hazard worldwide war III by using ignoring the undertaking or condone a coverage of "appeasement." the fee of the failure of that coverage interior the Nineteen Thirties replaced into purely to clean in anyone's suggestions to hazard it.