The roots of Australia's involvement in Vietnam lie in the earlier Vietnam conflict of the 1950's. The French ruled Indochina for about a century from 1860 to 1954. Ousted in the Second World War they then returned in 1946 to reassert their rule. Opposition came from the viet minh, create by Communist party founding member ho chi minh in 1945 based in north Vietnam.

In 1954 the Geneva accords were signed by france and Vietnam, dividing Vietnam at the 17th parallel, pending the outcome of national elections, north Vietnam being ruled by communists and south Vietnam ruled by the republic of (south) Vietnam with ngo dinh diem as PM.

The second Indochina war or Vietnam war as some considered it began after the Vietnam communist party (the north) decided in 1959 to sanction greater reliance on military activity and to start invading south Vietnam. Since the United States of America had bank rolled the French in earlier wars they then began

The Whitlam government assumed the office in December 1972, by then only a few Australian troops remained in Vietnam. The fallacy that the ALP withdrew Australians from Vietnam still survives, the only truth being that a small contingent remaining were withdrawn by the ALP government with unseemly haste, not allowing a structured hand over they eventually did. The last Australian soldier apart from the official small Australian Embassy Guard Group left Vietnam on 18th December 1972.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)