Forward Defence: Korea, Malaya and Vietnam

The role the armed forces play in securing Australia at various historical junctures has been determined largely by strategic assessments and defence doctrine. Yet the decision to deploy troops abroad is not solely a strategic one; its successful implementation relies heavily on the participation and consent of the population. Continuing the previous chapter’s discussion of the U.S. alliance, this chapter considers the public’s views on the role of its armed forces in security policy, through the lens of Australian military involvement in overseas missions. The focus is on the three conflicts which dominated defence and foreign policy in the immediate postwar period. The first is the Korean War which began in 1950 when North Korea invaded the South and ended with partition of the Korean peninsula in 1953. The second is the Malayan Emergency which began in 1948 when communists sought to overthrow the British colonial rule; the insurgency ended in 1960. The third and most significant conflict from the perspective of public opinion is the Vietnam War, which began in 1955 and ended in 1975, although Australian troops were withdrawn earlier in 1972.