![]() ![]() They were dispersed around the country and though they were supposed to be non-combatant advisors they quickly found themselves having to lead by example in combat situations. ![]() Known as the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV), its first 30 members were deployed to Vietnam in mid-1962. The Australian Army appointed one of its jungle warfare experts, Colonel Francis ‘Ted’ Serong, to establish an elite unit of jungle warfare and counter-insurgency experts. He also hoped (in vain) that it would improve trade between Australia and the US. Menzies hoped that by Australia sending advisers to Vietnam, America would be more inclined to provide support should other South-East Asian countries, such as Indonesia, threaten Australia more directly. The United States, Australia and New Zealand had signed the ANZUS treaty in 1951. In 1962 the United States asked Australia to send military advisers to Vietnam as a way of making the war against North Vietnam appear more international. The United States, South Vietnam and later Australia, New Zealand and other allies faced communist forces in two forms: the regular North Vietnamese Army, and the Viet Cong, who were mainly South Vietnamese guerrillas raised and supplied by North Vietnam and who were often indistinguishable from civilians. This was motivated by US concerns about the so-called ‘Domino Effect’, which held that if North Vietnam defeated the South, communism would spread across all of South-East Asia. ![]() From the late 1950s, the United States committed troops to help South Vietnam defend itself, rapidly escalating its deployments under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations through the early and mid-1960s. In 1956 North Vietnam began trying to seize control of the south. The Geneva Accords peace agreement in July that year saw the country divided between the communist north and a quasi-democratic (though corrupt and dictatorial) south. A bitter war ensued that ended with the French being defeated in 1954. In 1945 the French returned, but Ho Chi Minh, leader of the Vietnamese Communist Party, saw an opportunity for his country to become independent. During the Second World War Japan invaded the French colonies of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. ![]()
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