Declining support Australian support for the Vietnam War reached its peak in 1967. This is evident in the overwhelming support (despite some protests) for the visit of American President Johnson as well as in Prime Minister Holt s landslide election victory in the same year. However, Australian support for both the war and conscription declined slowly but surely from 1968. In this lesson, you examine some of the reasons for this change in people s attitudes. They include the Government s decision to send conscripts to Vietnam (where many died) and the role of television in graphically bringing the horrors of war into the family home night after night The lottery of death In light of the Cold War situation and the growing fear of communism, the Menzies Government had passed the National Service Act of 1951. Until it ended in 1959, this Act allowed for the compulsory call-up of eighteen yearold males for military training for a period of 176 days. Following their training, the conscripts remained members of the Army Reserve for five years. Some of these nashos (as National Servicemen were called) served in the Korean War, the Malayan Emergency and other conflicts. Following the Gulf of Tonkin incident, the Menzies government decided to reintroduce compulsory military training. The National Service Act of 1964 was passed on 24 November, establishing a scheme of selective national service. All twenty year-old non-aboriginal males had to register for national service (Aboriginal peoples, as defined by the Act, did not have to register). However, not all those who registered were called up. Part 2 Australia goes to Vietnam 31
Activity 10 Write true or false in response to these statements from The lottery of death. 1 Conscripts fought in the Korean War. 2 The Gulf of Tonkin incident came before conscription was reintroduced in 1964. 3 All twenty year-old Australian males were forced to serve in the armed forces if called up in 1964. Check your responses by going to the suggested answers section. The ballot The ballot to choose conscripts was similar to the lotto draws that you see on television. In fact, marbles with dates on them were actually pulled out of a lottery barrel. A ballot was drawn each March and September. In the March draw, birth dates from the first six months of the year were placed in a barrel and a predetermined number of dates were drawn. In September, birth dates from the second half of the year were drawn. Assume the following birth dates were selected in 1968: Months Birth dates January 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 12, 13, 14, 17, 19, 23, 24, 25, 26, 31 February 1, 7, 8, 12, 15, 18, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29 March 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 15, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 29, 30 April 1, 2, 7, 9, 10, 11, 15, 16, 18, 19, 22, 24, 28, 30 May 5, 6, 10, 14, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31 June 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 28, 29 July 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 19, 22, 28 August 2, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 18, 22, 24, 25, 26, 30, 31 September 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 10, 13, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 30 October 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 14, 17, 18, 20, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29 November 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 22, 23, 25, 27, 30 December 1, 5, 7, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, 23, 26, 28, 30, 31 Now, let s also assume that all your family and friends, or maybe your class, are twenty year-old, male, non-aboriginal citizens of Australia. 32 Australia in the Vietnam Era
On the following lines write down all the people you know who have just been conscripted into the Australian Army. Are you one of them? The ballots were held in private and the birth dates from the first eleven ballots were not publicised. Why do you think the Government kept the ballots a secret? Those men whose birth dates were chosen were sent a notice to attend a medical exam where they underwent physical, educational and psychological testing. About 44 per cent of those people who were selected by ballot failed these tests. Other men selected for National Service were entitled to claim exemptions for a variety of reasons. These included: being a conscientious objector (this had to be proven in a court) being married or currently undertaking a course of study. The rest went on to serve in the Australian Army for a period of two years. This was followed by three years in the Army Reserve. Following the decision to commit Australian troops to Vietnam the government amended the Defence Act so that conscripts could also serve overseas. They decided that unlike American conscripts, Australian nashos would be spread throughout the army. This meant each troop would be a mixture of regular army soldiers and conscripts. You can probably think of some reasons for conscription becoming less popular as the Vietnam War dragged on. Major reasons for the decline in support of conscription and the war itself were: the totally random nature of the selection process the reality that many people invented reasons for not going into the army the secretive nature of the ballot the fact that Australia was fighting a war that was no threat to its own shores. Another incident that focused national attention on conscription was the death of Errol Noack on 24 May 1966. Just over 500 Australians died in Vietnam, so what was so significant about this one death? Errol Noack was the first nasho to die in the Vietnam War. Two hundred other conscripts Part 2 Australia goes to Vietnam 33
had followed him by the end of the war. His death fuelled the growing antiwar protest movement. Not our war Can you remember the official reason for Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War? In 1964, Prime Minister Sir Robert Menzies had declared that Australia was legitimately committing troops at the request of the South Vietnamese Government, as their country was being threatened by North Vietnam. The leader of the ALP, Arthur Calwell, had a different opinion. He believed that Australia was illegally sending troops to participate in a civil war in Vietnam. Think about it: A more recent, similar situation was when critics believed Australia's involvement in the Iraq War was illegal, just as Calwell had felt about the Vietnam War. In 1965, he stated that Australian troops would be fighting at the request of, and in support of an unstable, inefficient, partially corrupt military regime which lacks even the semblance of being, or becoming, democratically based... Our present course is playing right into China s hands (A Calwell 1965). He believed that North and South Vietnam should sort out their differences without interference from outside. He didn t support the government s commitment of troops to the region and was against the conscription of young men. Calwell s perspective, including his stinging criticism of the government of South Vietnam, was not a view shared by many other Australians, even some in his own party. However, as the war dragged on, more and more people were echoing his opinion that Vietnam was not our war. The following poll results show how support for Australia's involvement in Vietnam began to decline. In response to the question, Do you think we should continue to fight in Vietnam or bring our forces back to Australia? this is what the Australian public believed: 34 Australia in the Vietnam Era
Source: Results of Morgan Gallup Polls, 1965-70 (as percentages) Date Continue Bring back Undecided September 1965 56 28 16 September 1966 61 27 13 May 1967 62 24 14 October 1968 54 38 8 December 1968 49 37 14 August 1969 40 55 6 October 1970 42 50 9 Morgan Gallup Poll: APOP Subscribers reports cited in King P, 1983, Australia's Vietnam, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, p 135. The figures in the undecided column would suggest that Australians were forming more definite opinions about the war as the years passed by. Activity 11 Colour in the circle that best answers the questions based on the Morgan Gallup Poll results. 1 Support for Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War began to decline in: a 1966 b 1968 c 1969 d 1970. 2 Support for Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War dropped below half the people polled in: a 1966 b 1968 c 1969 d 1970. Part 2 Australia goes to Vietnam 35
3 A clear majority of pollsters believed Australian troops should be brought home from Vietnam in: a 1966 b 1968 c 1969 d 1970. Check your responses by going to the suggested answers section. Another reason for the drop in Australian support for the Vietnam War was the far greater media coverage it had received than any previous conflict. The source of this higher exposure was the new medium of television. The television war Vietnam is often referred to as the television war. This is because it was the first major conflict since the introduction of television to Australia in 1956. Families sitting around their televisions at night or groups huddled around the windows of electrical stores (television was still too expensive for some people) were exposed to some of the horrors of the war. During World Wars I and II, the fighting was only covered by radio, written press reports and film reels shown in the local cinema. Photographs and drawings of wartime events sometimes accompanied news articles to provide evidence of the experience of war. Even then, a lot of war news received at home was heavily censored. However, the invention of television brought war into people s homes and made the experience all the more real. As opposition to Australia's participation in Vietnam increased, television also gave far more detailed, and often sensationalised, reporting of such activities as anti-war protests than radio or the print media. In fact, television exposure of protest activities was in turn responsible for greater support of the protest movement, especially amongst university students. The following images are some of the most graphic from the Vietnam War. While most of the television coverage centred on political and diplomatic aspects, even when seen only occasionally, images like these had a powerful effect on the Australian public. 36 Australia in the Vietnam Era
Source: Photograph of a North Vietnamese soldier being executed, 1968 Television image cited in Pemberton G, 2002, Vietnam Remembered, New Holland Publishers, Sydney, p 113. Source: Photograph of Vietnamese villagers running from a napalm attack copyright AAP, 8 June 1972 copyright Australian Associated Press (AAP), 1 February 1968 Television image cited in Pemberton G, 2002, Vietnam Remembered, New Holland Publishers, Sydney, p 133. Part 2 Australia goes to Vietnam 37
Source: Photograph of the effects of intense fighting in Saigon copyright Associated Press, June 1968 Television image cited in Rowe J, 1987, Vietnam, the Australian Experience, Time- Life Books, Sydney, p 93. The first two images in particular, were two of the most famous and explicit from the Vietnam War. As well as alarming television audiences around the world, they were also used by anti-war groups as powerful symbols of the barbaric nature of the conflict. Activity 12 In the following box, write down words to describe how you feel looking at these images. Check your responses by going to the suggested answers section. In particular, Australians were horrified to see young Vietnamese children and women involved in the conflict. This added to the impact of the images to the viewing public. Go to the exercises section and complete Exercises 2.7 to 2.8 as directed by your teacher. 38 Australia in the Vietnam Era
Increasing protest Many groups were formed to object to both Australia s participation in the Vietnam War and the conscription of twenty year-olds to fight. The early protests were largely peaceful, but the later groups became more militant in their actions. In this lesson, you identify the anti-war and anti-conscription groups formed during the Vietnam War. You compare the groups who expressed their opposition to the war through peaceful means with the more militant protest groups. You then learn about a series of events that united the groups the three Moratorium marches of the early 1970s. These were some of the biggest demonstrations of people power in Australian history. The peaceful groups Throughout the Vietnam War, much of the protest action was organised within Australia's universities. Student groups banded together to hold demonstrations that attracted hundreds of students, unionists and members of the public. Some of the student-directed groups included the Vietnam Action Committee, the Vietnam Day Committee and Students for Democratic Action. The photograph on the following page shows the membership of these protest groups to be mainly young people. Part 2 Australia goes to Vietnam 39
Source: A photograph of a demonstration against Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War Cowie H, 1987, Obedience or Choice, Jacaranda Press, Sydney, p 494. Youth Campaign against Conscription Largely made up of Sydney University students, the Youth Campaign against Conscription (YCAC) formed after the Federal Government announced the new National Service Act in November 1964. In June 1965, the YCAC placed an advertisement in The Australian newspaper seeking support. The advertisement was in the form of a petition opposing overseas conscription and was signed by 144 potential conscripts. The YCAC advertisement encouraged any other twenty yearolds to sign and send in the pledge: I support the campaign against overseas conscription. Hundreds of twenty year-old men responded to the YCAC advertisement, signing and returning the pledge of support for the YCAC campaign. Within months YCAC branches were formed in all states. 40 Australia in the Vietnam Era
Save Our Sons Two Sydney mothers, Joyce Golgerth and Pat Ashcroft, established the Save Our Sons (SOS) organisation within weeks of the government s 1965 announcement that it would send conscripts overseas. Save Our Sons was set up by mothers joining together to voice their opposition to the conscription of their sons for the slaughter in Vietnam (YCAC Newsletter, August 1968). By the end of the year, SOS had branches in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Newcastle and Adelaide. A photograph of an SOS group can be seen below. You will notice some obvious differences in appearance between members of this group and those of the YCAC. Source: Photograph of a Brisbane SOS group protesting in November 1966 National Library of Australia, November 1966 Murphy J, 1993, Harvest of Fear, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, p 141. A name you can see on two of the placards is Bill White. He was the first man to publicly refuse to report for national service. Bill White was also a schoolteacher. The YCAC and SOS held generally peaceful demonstrations at induction centres, railway stations (when conscripts were leaving for training), and other public places. Other action included draft card burnings and sit-ins outside politicians homes and in public places. Part 2 Australia goes to Vietnam 41
Activity 13 Write true or false in response to these statements from the information in The peaceful groups. 1 YCAC was mainly made up of students. 2 Bill White was a member of SOS. 3 The members of YCAC and SOS were primarily anticonscription, rather than anti-war groups. Check your responses by going to the suggested answers section. Much of the YCAC and SOS action in 1966 was directed at helping the ALP win the federal election. When Labor suffered a massive defeat in the November poll, branches of the YCAC began to disband. The militant groups The formation of the Draft Resistance Movement (DRM) in early 1968 signalled a start to a more aggressive protest movement. Whereas the YCAC had tried to end conscription politically by supporting the Labor Party, the DRM took more active measures. Although only in existence for a few months, the DRM provided information to draftees to help them fail their medicals and actively encouraged them not to register for national service. The extract on the following page leaves the reader in little doubt as to the aggressive nature of the DRM and its strategies. Source: Extract from a DRM publication The DRM has not been formed to oppose conscription; it has been formed to wreck it. We are opposed to the war in Vietnam and we intend to resist the conscription of Australian youth for this war by all available means. We will hold demonstrations of various kinds with the aim of making conscription as ineffective as possible; we will supply information on how to fail medical exams and other methods of resisting the draft and we will encourage people not to register. By these means we will help those 20 year olds who do not wish to be conscripted for any reason. The Peacemaker, February-March 1968 cited in King P, 1983, Australia s Vietnam, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, p 113. You will notice that the word all has been written in italics in the fourth line. As with capital letters and underlining, italics are often used in writing to emphasise a word or phrase. In this case, the DRM is making it very clear that no tactic was beyond them. 42 Australia in the Vietnam Era
As well as demonstrations, sit-ins and draft card burnings, the DRM and other militant groups such as the Students for a Democratic Society, the Pacifist Society and the Students Democratic Alliance, participated in raids on government offices. Demonstrations had also started to become more violent and clashes with the police often resulted in the arrest of many protesters. The defaulters Twenty year-old Australians who refused to register, report for their medical or obey their call-up were considered defaulters. Those who failed to register without good reason could be arrested and imprisoned for the same amount of time as their period of national service. That meant two years until 1971, when the period of national service was reduced to eighteen months. The first defaulters were jailed in military prisons. However, in May 1968, the government amended the National Service Act to impose a civil jail term that meant instead of being sent to military prisons, defaulters were treated as if they were criminals and were sent to normal prisons. In fact, only fourteen men were actually imprisoned for disobeying a call-up notice. However, almost 4000 were placed under investigation for suspected violations of the National Service Act. Activity 14 Colour in the circle that best answers the questions based on The militant groups. 1 An example of a militant group was: a b c d the DMR the Pacific Society Students for Democratic Action Students for a Democratic Society. 2 In order to wreck conscription, the Draft Resistance Movement was prepared to: a b c d advise twenty year-olds on how to fail the medical test break into government offices burn draft cards all of these measures plus a lot more. Part 2 Australia goes to Vietnam 43
3 A defaulter was: a b c d any Australian who refused to put their name on the register someone who could be jailed for three years a person who didn t attend their medical exam after being called up someone who didn t go to Vietnam. Check your responses by going to the suggested answers section. Marching in the streets By the start of 1970, Australian troops had been fighting in Vietnam for nearly five years. Along with our allies, there had been no notable success in defeating communism. Nearly every family was affected by the war as sons, brothers, cousins and friends were conscripted to fight in the jungles of Vietnam. The overpowering images of war could be seen on television on a regular basis. Anti-war groups from around the nation met in Melbourne at the start of 1970 to discuss a combined protest against the war. The idea of a moratorium was acknowledged as the most effective way to demonstrate large-scale opposition to the Vietnam War. Just as the Melbourne Cup is said to be the race that stops a nation, the objective of the Vietnam Moratorium was to bring Australia to a halt. Normal business would pause while marches, rallies and meetings were held around the country to protest against the war in Vietnam. The Moratorium had two main demands: the immediate, total and unconditional withdrawal of all United States and allied troops from Indochina and the immediate, total and unconditional withdrawal of all forms of support for the Saigon Government, and the immediate abolition of all forms of conscription. The moratorium idea took off with great support in offices, factories, schools and universities. Support was not only confined to the cities as many regional areas also embraced the idea. 44 Australia in the Vietnam Era
For and against Naturally the Government opposed the idea of a moratorium. It was suggested by Prime Minister John Gorton that holding a mass sit-in in a public place was illegal. His colleague, Billy Sneddon, went as far as suggesting that the Moratorium organisers were guilty of pack-raping democracy. On the other hand, many members of the Labor Party were enthusiastic supporters of the Moratorium Movement. Read the following extracts. They express different opinions of the Moratorium. The phrase, fifth column, used in the first extract is a figure of speech used to describe the media. Source A One view of the Moratorium Tomorrow we are to witness in many Australian cities the culmination of the activities of Australia s own fifth column movement the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign the main additional support for the Moratorium seems to be coming from Australian Labor Party voters whose purpose is to attack democracy. I would describe the Moratorium as the most blatant Communist ALP unity ticket ever conceived. Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates House of Representatives, 7 May 1970 cited in Blackmore W, 1976, Australians and War, Methuen of Australia, Melbourne, p 80. Source B Another view of the Moratorium There is intense and widespread opposition to the death and destruction. It needs no messages or control from Hanoi or Peking. Is it surprising that there is intense opposition to what has happened in Vietnam from students, workers and all sorts of people all round Australia and in every country of the world? what is being done in the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign is an example of government by the people; it is an example of people taking action about issues that are important to them. Commonwealth Parliamentary Debates House of Representatives, 7 May 1970 cited in Blackmore W, 1976, Australians and War, Methuen of Australia, Melbourne, p 80. Not only do the extracts give very different perspectives of the Moratorium, they also express very different opinions of its democratic nature. Activity 15 Complete the following table based on the two views of the Moratorium. Source A Source B Is the source for or against the Moratorium? What does the source say about the democracy of the Moratorium? Part 2 Australia goes to Vietnam 45
Check your responses by going to the suggested answers section. The second extract was part of a speech made by ALP politician, Dr Jim Cairns, in the House of Representatives. Dr Cairns was recognised as the leader of the Moratorium Movement. The right to protest The Moratorium raised fundamental questions about how far Australians could legally go in protesting about the laws that governed them. One of the rights of citizens of a democracy is to express their opposition to government policies, as long as this done in a non-violent way. Some of these forms of protest are: visiting or writing letters to Members of Parliament (MPs) signing and sending petitions to MPs writing to newspapers or calling talkback radio holding protest meetings, rallies, marches and strikes (usually with prior warning and/or permission) holding debates, lectures or other ways to promote an opinion. Following this thinking, the participants in the Vietnam Moratorium had every right to protest by stopping their work or study, closing their shops, businesses and offices to show their opposition to the government s policy on Vietnam. The big day out As you can see in the photograph below, Moratorium Day attracted huge support from the Australian public. Approximately 200 000 people around Australia marched for peace on 8 May 1970. In Melbourne alone, over 70 000 protestors took part in the street parade. 46 Australia in the Vietnam Era
Source: Photograph of the Moratorium March in Melbourne, 8 May 1970 Murphy J, 1993, Harvest of fear, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, p 247. While shops and offices were temporarily closed the people were able to show their objection to the war in Vietnam. Numerous functions were also held outside city centres. As well as public meetings, there were concerts, church services, dances, debates and other functions held to demonstrate opposition to the war. The May Moratorium was a peaceful affair. Although tens of thousands of Australians gathered across the country to show their support for the antiwar movement, there were only a few arrests. However, subsequent Moratoriums were not as peaceful. Although the government had committed to reducing the number of Australian troops in Vietnam, a second moratorium was planned for 18 September 1970. This and a third moratorium held on 30 June 1971, attracted less support than the first although there were still many Australians eager to protest. These demonstrations were also marred by violence with several hundred people arrested. Part 2 Australia goes to Vietnam 47
Activity 16 Complete the following passage by choosing the right word and writing it in the space based on the information in Marching in the streets. anti-war conscription democratic demonstrate illegal right The first Moratorium March was held on 8 May 1970. It attracted about 200 000 people across Australia who wished to against Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War and the of soldiers to fight in the war. As well as being a strong statement, the Moratorium also raised important questions about the to protest in a society. Some people, such as Billy Sneddon, considered the rally. Others, like Dr Jim Cairns, believed that the Moratorium was a perfect example of civics in action. Check your responses by going to the suggested answers section. Australia withdraws In May 1969, Prime Minister Gorton declared Australian troops would remain in Vietnam until they could be totally withdrawn. However, following an announcement that the Unites States would begin bringing their troops home, the Australian government decided in April 1970 that they would also begin a partial withdrawal. In August 1971 the government declared most Australian troops would be home by Christmas 1971. Following the Labor Party s election victory in December 1972, almost all troops were immediately brought home. As well, conscription was abolished and draft defaulters were released from prison. The war in Vietnam continued until the Communists claimed victory in 1975. The conflict resulted in hundreds and thousands of Vietnamese refugees, who were either homeless and/or hunted by the victorious communist government for their opposing views. Many of these refugees found their way to Australia via a perilous sea journey. Most came in small, seriously overcrowded and leaking boats. They became known as the boat people. In due course, they would have a significant impact on Australian society. Go to the exercises section and complete Exercises 2.9 to 2.10 as directed by your teacher. 48 Australia in the Vietnam Era