1. BY Jordan Cohen AND Liam Pemberton 1962 - 1972

2. The Vietnam War was the longest major conflict in which the Australian Nation has been involved in. Spanning from 1962 to 1972, Australia's involvement in the war involved approximately 60,000 Australian personnel alone, comprising of mainly ground troops, air force and navel personnel. The first instances of war began in 1959, five years after the division of the country into Communist North Vietnam, (led by Ho Chi Minh), and Democratic South Vietnam, (under the leadership of Ngo Dinh Diem.) With talk of spreading Communism among North Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh set in motion a guerilla fighting campaign against South Vietnam, led by Viet Cong units, to unite the whole country under Communist rule. It was then that the United States sought to control the spread of Communism by training the Army of the Republic of Vietnam while also maintaining a heavy military occupancy. The war claimed the lives of 521 Australian servicemen with a further estimated 3,000 returning home wounded. Far more fortunate than the South Vietnamese death toll culminating into an estimated 882,000, which included 655,000 adult males, 143,000 adult females and 84,000 children. The Vietnam War sparked a world of unrest and disagreement that is still noticeable in contemporary society. It is impossible to say who came out the most victorious in the Vietnam War, North Vietnam or the United States, but it is certain that the real losers were the South Vietnamese. The decade following the end of the war brought upon the death and imprisonment of over 5,000,000 South Vietnamese civilians under the consolidation of the Communist rule. For a decade after this war, Vietnamese Boat People were washing up on every beach from Japan to Australia. It was the largest flood of war refugees ever recorded in a post-war era. The Vietnam War "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic." Joseph Stalin Vietnamese Casualties As A Whole (Dead & Injured) 3. Map Of Vietnam Geographical Location Of Vietnam Map Of Vietnam & Neighbouring Countries Towards The End Of The War, The City Of Saigon Fell Under The Control Of The Vietnamese Peoples Army, Establishing The New Name Ho Chi Minh City 4. Refugees Fleeing Vietnam Liam Pemberton Operation Baby Lift In Action 5. After 3 decades of war and instability in Indochina newly elected president, Mr. Nixon declared in 1969 that the US army would partake in Vietnamisation. This politically based decision led to the evacuation of US troops despite the major role they played in defending South Vietnam. By 1973 all US troops had been evacuated and all military responsibility was handed back to the South Vietnamese Army. This shift in military power led to the fall of South Vietnams capital, Saigon, to North Vietnamese forces. As a result many refugees tried to escape the country through official means, those who were not as fortunate had to risk their lives through other means of escape. Weeks before the inevitable fall of Saigon, US military commenced an operation that went by the name of Baby Lift. Its aim was to evacuate orphaned Vietnamese children before the communists gained control of Saigon, it is estimated that thousands of orphans were saved this way. In the source it shows the US soldiers caring for the Vietnamese children as they prepare to transport them to Australia and the United States of America for adoption. Despite the communists new found power in South Vietnam, refugees continued to flee the country in an effort to escape the new regime, reeducation camps and death. Those who chose to stay and had been associated with the republic of Vietnam and opposed forces were forced into re education camps where they were rehabilitated, this was seen in the form of torture and oppression. Those who did choose to escape the country had to do so on overcrowded boats that were barely seaworthy. As a result many never made it to there destinations being Indonesia, Hong Kong, Thailand and Malaysia. When these refugees did land on these shores after months at sea, they were placed in refugee camps that were notorious for disease and unsanitary conditions due to the overwhelming numbers. It would be years before these refugees were granted citizenship and freedom in other countries. Refugees Fleeing Vietnam Liam Pemberton 6. Transport To Australia Jordan Cohen 7. The Vietnam War forced millions to flee not only their homes but their country. As Communist Viet Cong soldiers torched villages and raised cities to the ground using guerilla warfare tactics and shock combat, only a select few civilians were offered safety and refuge by the US and Australian embassies, whereas most were forced to evacuate on unseaworthy ships and rickety boats. These refugees, as a whole, were known as the Vietnamese Boat People. The term "Vietnamese Boat People was used to define all the Vietnamese, about 2 million, who fled their country by any means necessary between the years 1975 and 1995.The crossing undertaken by Vietnamese refugees is one of pure admiration and determination. At times, refugees would find themselves at sea for extended periods of time in treacherous conditions, protected only by rickety old vessels. Many of the refugees did not survive the passage, succumbing to severe storms and sinking from over-crowded boats. Pirates regularly attacked the slow, defenseless ships, raping the women, stealing whatever valuables were on board and often murdering the refugees. The boat peoples primary ambition for asylum involved fleeing to the surrounding Asian countries of Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Singapore and Hong Kong. Although, over 94,000 Indochinese found themselves settling in Australia, 2,000 of which arrived by boat. The remaining 92,000 were fortunate enough to be evacuated out of Vietnam by humanitarian and military organisations. The enormous flight of hundreds of thousands of boat people from Vietnam following the war resulted in an international humanitarian crisis among Australasian and Asian countries regarding the over-population of communities and refugee camps. This later led to a dramatic increase in the amount of refugee camps used to house incoming migrants in Australia and neighboring islands. Transport To Australia Jordan Cohen Vietnamese Migration Routes, (Often, Boats Would Miss Malaysia & Indonesia And Arrive In Australia 8. Initial Housing And Experience In Australia Vietnamese Refugees Accepted Into Jordan Cohen 9. Between the years 1901 - 1972, Australia strongly maintained what became known as the White Australia Policy on immigration. Under this policy, the immigration of Asian and other non-white ethnic groups was severely restricted. The Whitlam Government officially ended the policy in 1973 and hence paved way for refugees from South Vietnam and their families to arrive in substantial numbers to settle in Australia. It was the largest influx of Asian people to settle in Australia since Chinese settlement during the nineteenth-century gold rush. As early refugees began arriving on north Australian shores in 1976, the Fraser Government was reluctant to accept such a large-scale influx of Vietnamese migrants. The controversy caused alarm as the refugees were not undergoing health checks and screening normally undertaken before migration is permitted. The possibility of Vietnamese re-introducing the extremely contagious and deadly Tuberculosis virus, which had been eradicated in Australia by the 1970s, would have proven potentially fatal for many Australians had a boatload of refugees possessed the disease. It also raised concerns about the security of the northern coastline, with Australians arguing that if refugee boats could land undetected, so could enemy watercraft. The country became divided on whether or not to accept war-stricken refugees, with a majority of Australians favoring the refugees side. As a result of this, the Australian people became a huge influence on the Government's actions towards refugees. The South Vietnamese Government felt that because Australia was an active ally during war, the country should accept responsibility for some of the refugees who had fled after their countrys defeat. Humanitarian groups in Australia soon arose to the defense of the arriving refugees, prompting wide scale protests and riots. Shortly after, Australian attitudes began to change towards accepting South-Asian refugees and by 1981, close to 40,000 Vietnamese Boat People had been welcomed on Australian soil. For many, Australia's treatment of the Vietnamese boat people is a proud period in our long immigration history. Although the Government was motivated to accept Vietnamese refugees via external factors, first and second generation Vietnamese Australians are still immensely thankful for the hospitality received when they first arrived in Australia. A former Vietnamese refugee who sailed for 17 days before reaching Australia wrote in a Reddit AMA, (Ask Me Anything), Australian sponsors helped us out a lot. They recognised our skills and offered us with jobs that would help support our families. Many of us were given immediate citizenship and placed into the community without so much as a visa. The community met us with open arms. Australia was surreal. Everything was big and there was just so much to overwhelm the senses. I was very young so the experience was much like a dream at the time. Initial Housing And Experience In Australia Jordan Cohen Refugees Were Accepted Straight Into Society Without Visas (Immediate Citizenship) 10. Initially, before Vietnamese refugees were placed freely into communities, many of them were housed in immense encampments consisting of Quonset huts and tents. These huts consisted of a semi-circular fashioned, galvanized steel structure that could easily be transported to accommodate the increasing number of boat people. As the number of arriving asylum seekers grew, so to did the refugee camps. Since the 1970s, 24 refugee camps and centers have been established around Australia including the Christmas Island and Nauru facilities. Nowadays, it would seem that the South Vietnamese refugees who sought safety in Australia were the last to benefit from it. In the early 1980s, the Government became increasingly suspicious of Vietnamese asylum seekers seeking a better way of life rather than to escape from some form of persecution or war. The fact that Australia, at first, struggled with the arrival of South Vietnamese asylum seekers was an early sign of an insecure nation threatened by Asian penetration migration. It is clear that this anxiety has influenced the national mentality since the mid-19th century. It is also evident that this anxiety continues to show in immigration policies today, with the latest policies being to turn back the boats, There is no doubt that the Vietnamese migration towards the end of the Vietnam War led to a huge wave of globalization in Australia. Australians have greatly benefited From the spread of Vietnamese culture and this is predominantly apparent through Australians deep affection for Vietnamese restaurants. Initial Housing And Experience In Australia Jordan Cohen Early Vietnamese Refugees Were Housed In Quonset Huts & Refugee Camps Before Being Placed Into Society Refugee Camps Were Expansive To Accommodate For Growing Numbers Of Refugees Fleeing The War, Similar To This Camp In Camp Pendleton, California 11. Adaptation To Australian Culture Liam Pemberton 12. The mid 1970s marked a period in time of great ethnic change for Australia as it began to change its once conservative views on society, due to the arrival of Vietnamese refugees on Australian soil. This change was led by Malcolm Fraser leader of the liberal party and was sparked because of the obligations Australia had created to South Vietnam in participating in the Vietnam War. This resulted in the refugees from South Asia being resettled in Australia. Over the next ten year Australia would become home for over 90 000 Indochinese refugees. Despite the policy change, many still had unrealistic views associated with foreign refugees that resonated from the diminished White Australia Policy. This idea soon faded as many Australian citizens began to see the benefits of Vietnamese refugees and multicultural diversity they brought with them. Upon arriving in Australia almost all past qualifications that the Vietnamese people had were considered irrelevant in our western society, despite now knowing this is not entirely true. As a result many Vietnamese people ended up working in lower socioeconomic jobs, using them as a way of financing their own small businesses. In many cases these businesses took the form of restaurants. In the picture you can see two neighbouring Vietnamese businesses, this can be explained by the demographics associated with people of Vietnamese heritage. When these people first came to Australia as refugees they settled in locations together because of their similarities in traditions, language and religion etc. An example of this in New South Wales is Cabramatta. It is widely accepted that many Australian born Vietnamese Australians are associated with higher socioeconomic jobs because of the work ethic there parents instilled in them. The new generation of Vietnamese Australians have not only confirmed their ableness to fit into Australian culture but also their ability to thrive in this multicultural society. Adaptation To Australian Culture Liam Pemberton Vietnamese-Born Australian Comedian/Author/Actor, Anh Do Is A Perfect Example Of A Vietnamese Refugee Who Ignored The Odds And Sailed For 5 Days In A Leaky Boat To One Day Succeed In Australia Vietnamese Tradition Lives On In Cabramatta 13. BibliographyGoogle Accounts. 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