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Period: to
Vietnam War
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Start
The first members of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) arrive in South Vietnam. -
Harold Holt starts
Holt announces the Australian commitment in South Vietnam will be Increased to a 4350-man task force, and will include conscripts. The 1st Australian Task Force (1ATF) will include two infantry battalions, a Special Air Service squadron, combat and support logistic units and eight RAAF Iroquois helicopters (9 SQN). The Task Force will be supported by 1 Australian Logistic Support Group (1 ALSG) to be established at Vung Tau. For the first time, national servicemen will be sent to South Vietnam -
Battle of Long Tan
Three months after the Australians established their Task Force base at Nui Dat, in the heart of South Vietnam’s Phuoc Tuy Province, the Viet Cong determined to rid the area of this unwelcome incursion. Having brought the base under fire on the night of 16–17 August 1966, a large Viet Cong force remained undetected in the area. Australian patrols found some evidence of their presence, radio traffic indicated enemy movement in the vicinity, but of Viet Cong troops, there was no sign. -
Operation Bribie
On the morning of 17 February 1967 a Viet Cong force attacked the fishing village of Lang Phuoc Hai on Phuoc Tuy’s coast. At first estimated to be a company, then two, later reports revealed the attack to have been made by an enemy battalion. Shortly after 10:00am the Viet Cong began to withdraw chased by airstrikes and artillery fire. -
Battle of Coral/Balmoral
In war there are moments when instinct and training come together to warn soldiers of impending danger. So it was for a group of Australians in a nondescript corner of South Vietnam’s Bien Hoa province on the evening of 12 May 1968. There, at Fire Support Base Coral, established just hours before, as infantry moved into ambush positions, artillerymen prepared their guns and mortar men dug their pits, more than one soldier felt that ‘something funny was going on’, that there was ‘an atmosphere in -
Battle of Binh Ba
In the years following the establishment of the Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat, the nearby village of Binh Ba was subject to several cordon and search operations but the insurgents continued to return to, and operate from the village. -
Protesters
Anti-Vietnam War protesters stage the first moratorium marches in Australian cities (70,000 in Melbourne, and about 120,000 throughout Australia). -
Rar
8 RAR returns to Australia at the end of its 12 month tour in South Vietnam. It is the first 1ATF unit not to be replaced. -
Leave Vietnam
The Prime Minister announces the bulk of Australian forces in South Vietnam are to be withdrawn, leaving only a modified training team. The period of national service is reduced from two years to 18 months. -
Conscription
Conscription ends, draft resisters are released from jail and pending prosecutions for draft resistance are dropped. -
USA and North Vietnam sign a peace agreement.
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Last US troops leave Vietnam.
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South Vietnam's President Nguyen Van Thieu declares that war has begun again.
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Australia leaves
Australia closes its embassy in Saigon, completing withdrawal from Vietnam on ANZAC Day. The final task of Australia's military in the Vietnam War is conducted on ANZAC Day, when the RAAF participates in evacuation of the Australian Embassy and final withdrawal of personnel from Saigon -
Cambodia
Phnom Penh, Cambodia falls to the Khmer Rouge
