Two Australian wars, two Prime Ministers: Australia’s virtual Vietnam, and lessons for today

摘要

At the tenth anniversary of the decision to commit Australian troops to the Iraq war, this paper reconstructs the previously unknown, and remarkably casual, process by which the Menzies government committed Australian troops to Vietnam.The paper argues that the dismaying similarities between the Australian entries into these two wars strengthen the call for an Australian Iraq War inquiry, following those in the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, “in the hope that what is learnt from it will lead to improved procedures for decision-making, under which the government will have to level with the Parliament and the people.”