hahahaha@ year 10'ers
you guys are probably asleep! but ill write what i remember,
from what some of you have posted seems like your doing the SECOND INDO CHINA WAR!.
ill work my way in ascending order of post and briefly expand on what they've written. btw, i did this same part for my hsc however we focus on vietnam/america rather than australia(? i think thats what u guys are doing?)
more on "HoboPanda"'s comment
The spread of communism began in greece pre WW2, and moved around with stalin until hitler took over that part of europe but Russia had been communist since after WW1 by now in which China also followed shortly, the DOMINO THEORY was when one country falls it would continue to affect its neighbouring countries to do the same, and VIETNAM being north of australia it seemed as it it would eventually spread down to australia. ALTHOUGH, Ho Chi Minh was more of a nationalist, he used communism as a spring board and a way to unify and benefit the people because the majorty were peasents, Ho Chi Minh was not purely a communist, if anytihng he was a genuine Nationalist. Neverthe less, American and Australian propaganda used this domino theory to state that eventually australia's way of living would be reformed to the extreme lefts(communism) in which caused AUSTRALIA TO COMPLY!. Australia was one of the only countries to send their troops and fund themselves, where as america had paid many other nations to fight hteir war at the same time. Also, Many Vietcong(PLAF) and the Army of North Vietnam (also known as the PAVN) stated that AUStralian troops were the most effective during the war.
maiying.n
this person sums that part up and anyway i dont know much about this so i wont confuse u all
iEdd:
Most vietnam vets , both australia and america, did not receive their " parade " after returning. Because President Johnson used the Gulf Of TOnkin Resolution to send troops to vietnam there was no actual formal declaration of war,
the gulf of tonkin resolution gave johnson a " blank cheque " in order to do whatever he wanted,
thus, so when the troops went back from what they perceived as a " war" it was stated it was NOT a war and more of a " police action " and they were merly policeing another conutry in need. this debate of weather it was a war or not still exists today.
what iEdd is all true, to sum it up you can say, the troops that returned were not recognized as war veterans and hence , did not comply with the experiences and needs to receive war pensions, parades, war medels, and so forth.
ronnknee:
This time in the world drugs were very "new" and most people were ignorant and naive to the effects of drugs. And yes, drugs were heavily used by Western Troops in vietnam as they used it to get high to escape the reality. many vets both in usa and america came back with chronic addictions to drugs, mostly marajuana
and on the note of weapons :
you can safely say
"America used almost everything they had except the atomic bomb on Vietnam"
and helecopters were the most effective/useful
hope this helps
good luck year 10 kiddies
hehe