AUSTRALIA AND VIETNAM On the 29th of April 1965, Australia Prime Minister Menzies formally announced Australia's participation in the Vietnam War and explained it in the following terms: The takeover of South Vietnam would be a direct military threat to Australia and all the countries of South and Southeast Asia. It must be seen as part of a trust by Communist China between the India and Pacific Oceans. Furthermore, Menzies highlighted that Australia's commitment was a …showed first 75 words of 4101 total…

…showed last 75 words of 4101 total…in latter stages with Australia's involvement to camouflage its unilateral Indochina concerns. Rusk's antics gave hard proof to this assertion. This worked perfectly well for Menzies and he used excessive Communist rhetoric to hush up opposition. Willy-nilly, be it 'forward defense' or prompt involvement, anti-Communist rhetoric could be used. But all these exactly highlighted the crux of the situation. RVN was never the real concern. Self interest was at the end of the day paramount.