History shows us that most American wars started for an
obvious reason but this was not the case with the war in
Vietnam. The United States entered the war in stages with the
president providing economic and military aid to the French who
had control of the country.
When the Communist-led Vietnamese Nationalist army
defeated French forces at Dien Bien Phu in 1954, the French
had to accept the creation of a Communist Vietnam north of the
17th parallel while leaving a non-Communist body south of that
line.
The Americans did not accept this arrangement and
Recognized the Republic of Vietnam, run by Ngo Dinh Diem in
South Vietnam, as an independent nation only because it was
not Communist. They sent military advisers to train a South Vietnamese army, and allowed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to conduct psychological warfare against the North. The government led by Diem was even worse than the one in North Vietnam. Diem was a brutal dictator who subdued his people. He persecuted Buddhists, who made up ninety percent of the country, and moved villagers into controlled communities in an effort to ward off Communism. As a result many Southern Vietnamese turned to the Communist party. Those who supported North Vietnam established the National Liberation Front, of which whose members were called Vietcong.
In 1961 President John F. Kennedy sent a number of Special Operations Forces-trained (Green Beret) soldiers to teach the South Vietnamese how to fight what was called counterinsurgency war against Communist guerrillas in South Vietnam. By the time Kennedy was assassinated in November 1963, there were more than 16,000 U.S. military advisers in South Vietnam, and more than 100 Americans had been killed. The next American president then committed the United States to a war against North Vietnam.
Australia had signed the ANZUS treaty that stated that Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. would help each other out in the war. As an ally of America, Australians were brought into the war.
In the early 1960s Australia, along with other nations, especially the USA, wanted to stop the spread of communism in Europe and Asia, and therefore supported South Vietnam.
In 1961 and in 1962, the leader of the government in South Vietnam, repeatedly requested assistance from the US and its allies to improve its security. In 1962 Australia eventually sent military advisers, known as the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam, or "the Team". This was the beginning of Australia's involvement in the war in Vietnam. In 1964 the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) also sent a flight of Caribou transports to South Vietnam.
When it had become clear that South Vietnam could not stave off the communist insurgents and the North Vietnamese, the USA commenced a major escalation of the war, and by the end of 1965 had committed 200,000 troops to the conflict. As part of the build up, the American government requested further support from friendly countries in the region, including Australia. The Australian government dispatched the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR), in June 1965 to serve alongside the US 173rd Airborne Brigade in Bien Hoa province.
The war with Vietnam was both a guerilla war and a political war. The Allies depended upon military battles to win. While the Allies were undisputedly stronger militarily, the Vietcong use their environment with which they were familiar. They had done this against the French in the past and wanted to prolong the war indefinitely with hope that the enemy would tire and leave. As a result the morale of the Allies was undermined since the enemy never showed sign of weakening, no matter how great the losses. The Vietnamese guerillas forced the Allies to live in constant fear and paranoia as the guerillas repeatedly displayed their brutal resourcefulness. The Americans overlooked the fact that they could have won the war by providing the people with an alternative government to Communism that did not oppress and persecute them, rather than by crushing the Vietcong.
In 1965 a savage battle occurred at la Drang Valley and set the tone for the war to come. 450 American soldiers were dropped from helicopters and immediately surrounded by 2000 Vietnamese soldiers. The battle between them lasted for 3 days. After this both sides claimed that they had won the first battle.
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