Modern day historians refer to the Vietnam War as being that period of conflict, between 1962 and 1973, when America, with its Allies Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, Thailand, and the Philippines, sent troops to help the South Vietnam Government. In fact, this was only the final chapter in an era that spanned many decades. Prior to the Second World War, Vietnam was part of the colony of French Indochina that included Laos, Cambodia, and North and South Vietnam.

In 1940 the Vichy-French government, of German occupied France, appointed Jean Decoux as Governor General of Indochina. Decoux invited the Japanese Army to station 30,000 troops in Vietnam, and use all its major airports. This made Indochina the most important staging area for all Japanese military operations in Southeast Asia for the next 5 years.

During the Second World War the movement for national liberation of Vietnam was confined to the activities of Vietnamese exiles in southern China. In May 1941 Ho Chi Minh formed these exiles into the Viet Minh, which was a united front of several nationalist groups. The Chinese and Americans, needing intelligence about the Japanese movements, as well as help in rescuing downed pilots, relied more and more on the Viet Minh.

In 1943, with the Viet Minh organising a tight net of political agents and groups of guerrillas, and making themselves useful to the Allies, China and the U.S., gave financial assistance to them. The forerunner of the CIA, the US OSS (Office of Strategic Service), even provided weapons and training to the Viet Minh, and supported Ho Chi Minh's attempts to secure a united Vietnam.

In March 1945, with defeat looking ominous, the Japanese disarmed and interned the French, who had cooperated with the occupation forces. Bao Dai, the last (French) appointed emperor of Vietnam, was permitted to proclaim Vietnam's independence, and appoint a national government at Hue, but all real power remained with the Japanese Army of occupation. With the fall of Japan in August 1945 the Viet Minh ordered a general uprising, taking power in Hanoi that same month. Bao Dai abdicated after his Hue government resigned in favour of the Hanoi government set up under Ho Chi Minh.

The French tried to regain control of her territories in Indochina through the Potsdam Conference of the Allies, following World War 2. Under these arrangements it was left to the British to disarm the Japanese in the south, and the Chinese to disarm them in the north of Vietnam. China, however, did not want the French returned to the region and so did not interfere with the established Ho Chi Minh government in Hanoi.

The British, on the other hand, not only rearmed the French that the Japanese had interned, but supported them to depose the southern Vietnamese administration. The French started the reconquest of Vietnam in September 1945, and drove the South Vietnamese, (both communists and anti-Communists), into armed resistance.

Indochina circa 1962, with Phuoc Tuy Province indicated
in the southern area of South Vietnam, near Saigon.

This Indochina war, 1946 to 1954, saw the French winning only battles and skirmishes in major cities of Southern Vietnam, but finding it more difficult in other parts of the country. Neither side seemed to have the upper hand until, in 1954, the Viet Minh overran an important base at what became known as the Battle of Dien Bien Phu. All French troops then withdrew to the southern half of Vietnam, and soon after the French Government announced that the Geneva convention, set up before hand, was ready to reach a treaty agreement between the two parties.

The result of this treaty was that Vietnam was divided, at the 17th parallel, into North Vietnam, under the control of the Ho Chi Minh led Government, in Hanoi, and South Vietnam, with a Government more acceptable to the French, in Saigon. The French Army remained in South Vietnam training and equipping the South Vietnam Army, because at the time, the French feared a possible resurgence of old Viet Minh units, (now called Viet Cong), and still residents of South Vietnam. By 1956 the French had totally withdrawn, and the task of training the South Vietnamese was taken over by a United States Advisory Team.

By this time American fears for a communist controlled Asia, saw its ideological switch from helping socialist Ho Chi Minh to reunite Vietnam, to one of helping to set up a more democratic South Vietnam Republic. And so began the longest war of involvement by Australian Military Forces, with the Menzies, Australian Government throwing its full support behind America and its other allies.

In the early 1960s’ US Military admitted to having thousands of advisors working in South Vietnam. In August 1962, under the auspices of having the survival of the South Vietnam government as a national interest, Australia sent its own group of Military Advisors. They became known as the AATTV - Australian Army Training Team Vietnam - and by 1965 numbered 100. Not only did this group train the South Vietnamese, but they also went on combat operations against the Viet Cong, (Viet Minh), with the South Vietnam Army units.

In 1965, with the Viet Cong seriously threatening the South Vietnam Government’s security, the US began committing its own military units. This was escalated by the North Vietnam Army, moving into South Vietnam, to support the Viet Cong. The Australian Government decided to bolster its commitment as well, and sent a military contingent of about 1200 men. Robert Menzies' Australian Government were, by now, propagating the American theory of 'The Domino Principle', claiming that the south east asia area was just a stepping stone to Australia for communism to spread.

North Vietnam called on, and were supported with arms, from Russia, China, North Korea, and a few European Communist Bloc countries. Although America had complete control of the skies over South Vietnam, the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army units were able to transport modern weapons over land, utilising the borders between Cambodia and South Vietnam in what became known as 'The Ho Chi Minh Trail'.

Australia's first contingent consisted of one Infantry Battalion, Armoured vehicles, Signals troops, and Logistical support groups. These first Australian troops joined with a US Brigade of the US173 Airborne, stationed at Bien Hoa Air base, just northeast of Saigon. Australia also sent its Air Force with C3,'Caribou' ,Cargo/Troop Transporters and Canberra Bombers. Australian Navy ships were assigned patrol duties with the US Navy, and deployed to the Gulf of Tonkin, as well as escort duties for the HMAS Sydney, a converted Carrier, carrying our troops in and out of Vung Tau harbour for the remainder of the Vietnam War, and HMAS Melbourne.

Other American Allies, such as South Korea and The Philippines sent supporting forces as well. In 1966 Australia increased its commitment to a task force, similar in size to a Brigade, of 3 Infantry Battalions. The RAAF deployed a squadron, 9SQN, of helicopters, the most familiar being the 'Iroquois' dust-off chopper, and the 'Huey' Gunship. New Zealand joined with Australia and provided Artillery and a Company of Infantry soldiers.

The First Australian Task Force - 1ATF - was given the Province of Phuoc Tuy as its Tactical Area of Operations, and built an operational base at Nui Dat. The First Australian Logistic Support Group - 1ALSG - charged with supporting the 1ATF in the field, with its Hospital unit, Stores and Transport and Engineer Workshops, and a small infantry troop of D&E Platoon, set up base in the port city of Vung Tau.

Australia's Tactical Area of Responsibility, Phuoc Tuy Province.

The first ‘tours’ for Second (2RAR), Fifth (5RAR), and Sixth (6RAR) Regiments began in 1966. Over the next few years’ battalions were relieved in periods that allowed a change over between one regiment to the next. For instance, 2RAR arrived for its first tour in April 1966, to replace 1RAR that did not leave until June 1966. In 1970 this exchange of battalions was altered to facilitate a scaling down of Australia’s commitment, and infantry involvement was reduced to two battalions.

With vastly superior firepower, and with modern warfare utilising helicopters to provide greater mobility to ground forces, the US and Australian forces could deploy in concentrated numbers anywhere. However, this awesome firepower, and the ability to place large numbers of troops on the ground, relied on an enemy prepared to commit a large concentration of its own forces.

The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army units were skilled in the tactical doctrine used successfully by Mao Tse Tung against the Japanese, and during the Chinese Civil War. This doctrine taught them to avoid remaining a static force and offering large targets for a superior Army’s means of mass destruction. It was Guerrilla Warfare.

Unlike previous wars’, boundaries between enemy lines did not exist. There were no ‘safe’ areas, and all Australian troops were under constant threat. Guerilla warfare is based upon the principal of hit and run at no particular time or place. Typically the Viet Cong (VC) were farmers and teachers by day, but our enemy whenever they wanted.

Australian soldiers were trained to expect the unexpected. Sophisticated training techniques began to appear during intensive jungle training in 1967 and through to the early 1970’s. The whole of Phuoc Tuy province, to Australian troops, was ‘enemy territory’, and the enemy themselves were never clearly defined. The Viet Cong never wore the classic uniform of an Army. Instead they wore a variety of civilian clothing.

South Vietnam villagers who supported communism often helped the VC to ambush Australian soldiers sent to try and help the villagers. It became hard to trust other South Vietnamese. Governments, hindered by conventional warfare passed on Paris Peace Talk ‘convention’ to troops, unable to retaliate in kind to the enemy. More and more the Vietnam War became a political football game while troops from both sides died.

Politics invented the war, and created the rules of engagement, and it was going to be politicians who called a halt to what many called a senseless war. Along with the Australian Government’s reduction in its Vietnam Forces, the Americans were also withdrawing. In December 1972 only remnants of the AATTV, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam, and a guard Platoon and personnel at The Australian Embasy in Saigon, remained with American Troops.

By July 1973 all Australian troops had withdrawn, and by 1975 the South Vietnamese armed forces faced the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces alone. In May 1975, almost 30 years after Japan left it, Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese. And, the country - Vietnam - was united under Ho Chi Minh’s followers. Saigon was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.