australia’s involvement in the cold war — korea

7/29/2019 Australias Involvement in the Cold War Korea

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Australias Involvement in the Cold War Korea, Malaya, Malaysia and VietnamBy David HornerPart of the Australias Military History For Dummies Cheat Sheet

As a member of the Western Alliance, Australia fought in two of the biggestconflicts of the Cold War the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Australianforces also supported Britain in Malaya and assisted Britain and Malaysia againstIndonesia.

Korean War, 1950 53 . Australia sent contingents from the three services tofight with the United Nations in Korea. Most of the UN force was American, butwith contingents from other countries. The 3rd Battalion of the Royal AustralianRegiment (3 RAR) served from September 1951 to July 1953. Significant battleswere Kapyong (April 1951) and Maryan San (October 1951).

Malaya, 1950 60 . Australia sent units from the three services to assist Britain

and the Malayan Government fight Communist Terrorists in the MalayanEmergency. Australian battalions served on rotation for periods of two yearsbeginning in 1955. There were no major battles and only a few ambushes andpatrol clashes.

Malaysia, 1965 66 . Australian forces assisted Britain and Malaysia incountering Indonesias Confrontation with Malaysia. Two Australian battalions,two Special Air Service (SAS) squadrons and several engineer squadrons servedin Borneo. There were several deadly ambushes and patrol clashes, but nomajor battles.

South Vietnam, 1962 72 . Australian forces assisted South Vietnam and theUnited States in the Vietnam War. In 1962 Australia sent army advisers. In 1965a battalion was deployed. The following year this battalion was replaced by atask force with two and later three battalions operating in Phuoc Tuy Province.The RAAF sent helicopters, Canberra Bombers and Caribou transport aircraft.The RAN generally had a ship operating offshore. Major battles were Long Tan(August 1966), Coral Balmoral (May 1968) and Binh Ba (June 1969).

Australia in the cold war:A Historical Review

The last years of the twentieth century highlighted the role of historicalconsciousness in the attitudes of Australians to their countrys foreignrelations. Commonly accepted perspectives on Australias experienceduring the cold war, which maintained that the period had beencharacterized by Australias servility to the United States, influencedthe public response to issues such as Australias military commitmentsin the Persian Gulf in 1991 and 1998, and demonstrated the appeal of
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an Australian version of the Vietnam Syndrome. While for Americansthe most powerful lesson of the Vietnam War has been reluctance tosend military forces abroad, the events in the Gulf suggest that theconsequence for Australian governments of collaboration with theUnited States is likely to be widespread criticism of it as marking a

return to the allegedly obsequious Australian stance during theVietnam War.Similarly, the paucity of US military assistance to Australia during theEast Timor crisis of 1999 evoked a widespread sense of betrayal,shared, to judge by their public statements, by both the Prime Minister,John Howard, and the leader of the federal opposition, Kim Beazley,bringing into sharp relief two dominant perspectives on the history ofthe Australian-US alliance. One, an optimistic view of the benefits toAustralia, was sustained by the assumption that the United Stateswould, in some circumstances, be willing to act out of a sense ofloyalty to Australia rather than wholly on the basis of considerations of

the US national interest. The other emphasized the costs of thealliance for Australia: that since 1950, Australia had gone out of its wayto be loyal to the United States to the point of servility jeopardizingits own interests, especially its relations with its Asian neighbours, inthe hope that such sacrifices would be redeemed by US protection.

Brief Intro of Cold War and Imp Cold war events

The Cold War is the name given to the conflict that developed

between the United States and the Soviet Union after the SecondWorld War. Simply put, the Cold War was a conflict of opposingideologies - capitalism and communism. Although there were noactual battles or physical conflicts, the fear and hostility itproduced on both sides made it a war as dangerous as any other.

The US/USSR antagonism began in postwar Europe, when theSoviet Union brought Eastern Europe under its control and theUnited States exerted its influence in Western Europe. Germanyhad been divided into two nations; the wall that separated its

former capital Berlin, came to symbolise the mutual exclusion ofthe two ideologies. The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 signalledthe end of the Cold War; the breakdown of the Soviet Union soonfollowed, in 1991.

Significant Cold War events


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Australian forces engaged in Confrontation - March 1965Confrontation was a small undeclared war fought between 1962-

1966 during which Indonesia sought to destabilise the newlyindependent Malaysia. After two Indonesian raids on the Malayanpeninsula in 1964 the Australian government deployed abattalion in Borneo. Indonesia and Malaysia signed a peace treatyin 1966.

australia’s involvement in the cold war — korea

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