17 Australia's Military Involvement in the Vietnam War Part 2
Description
This article is from the Vietnam FAQ, by Brian Ross, John R. Tegtmeier, Edwin E. Moise, Frank Vaughan, John Tegtmeier with numerous contributions by others.
17 Australia's Military Involvement in the Vietnam War Part 2
This is the second post promised analysing why
Australia entered the Vietnam War. American readers should
be warned that because it looks primarily at the domestic
political scene in Australia at the time, it does as a
consequence refer to characters and events which most of
you will not be aware of. However, I have included a short
preface, attempting to identify most of the major players
and the themes which ran behind the scenes in Australian
society.
Preface:
There were, during the 1950's and 1960's three main
political parties in Australia. They were:
The Australian Labor Party (ALP). A mildly left-of-
centre, socialist party, the ALP was concieved, like its
British and New Zealand counterparts to represent the
rights of the workers against those of the employers. It
held power during the years 1941-1949, being defeated after
a series of disasterous Communist led coal strikes which
had crippled the economy and because of fears within the
electorate that its plan to nationalise the banks in 1949
meant that it was moving too far to the left.
The Liberal Party. A mildly, right-of-centre,
conservative party, the Liberals (a misnaming if ever there
was one IMO), were created out of the remains of the United
Australia Party, which had dissolved as a consequence of
losing government in 1941 as the result of a no-confidence
motion in the then Prime Minister, R.G.Menzies. Menzies
had then been re-elected in 1949 after skillfully making
use of the electorate's fears of Communism. This "kicking
the Communist can" as it became known was an electoral
tactic which the Liberals used time and time again
successfully as a means of keeping the ALP in Opposition.
The Country Party. A party which was and still is
basically a mix of elements of both left and right and
designed to represent the interests of the country dwellers
and farmers of Australia. It held government in coallition
with the Liberals during the period under examination and
for a short period (second shortest on record) its leader,
John McEwin was the PM after the accidental death by
drowning of the Liberal PM in 1967.
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