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Campaign for Peace in Vietnam sticker
Title : Campaign for Peace in Vietnam sticker Campaign for Peace in Vietnam sticker
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Source : Campaign for Peace in Vietnam (S.A.), SRG 124/8
Date of creation : ca. 1970
Format : Ephemera
Contributor : State Library catalogue
Catalogue record
The State Library of South Australia is keen to find out more about SA Memory items. We encourage you to contact the Library if you have additional information about any of these items.
Copyright : This item is reproduced courtesy of Hon. Lynn Arnold, on behalf of the former Campaign for Peace in Vietnam organisation. It may be printed or saved for research or study. Use for any other purpose requires written permission from Hon. Lynn Arnold, on behalf of the former Campaign for Peace in Vietnam organisation and the State Library of South Australia. To request approval, complete the Permission to publish form.
Description :

Sticker promoting the Campaign for Peace in Vietnam.


From 1954 communist North Vietnam and South Vietnam were at war. In the 1960s hundreds of thousands of United States troops were involved in support of South Vietnam and the Australian government also decided to commit troops.

A new National Service Act of 1964 required 20 year old men, selected by a ballot of birthdays, to serve for two years in regular army units. In May 1965 the Defence Act was amended to provide that these conscripts could also be required to serve overseas. Between 1965 and 1972 (when the last Australian troops were withdrawn from Vietnam) over 800,000 men were registered for National Service, 63,000 were conscripted by the ballot, and some 19,000 served in Vietnam. There were 496 killed and 2,398 wounded. The first conscript to die in Vietnam, Errol Noack, was a South Australian.

Many Australians were opposed to involvement in the Vietnam War and even more objected to the use of conscripts there. Tens of thousands of Australians participated in rallies and related activities as part of the Vietnam Moratorium protests. Groups such as the Campaign for Peace in Vietnam campaigned vigorously against conscription, and thousands joined protest marches in Adelaide in May and September 1970.

At the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign demonstration on 18 September 1970, 130 arrests were made during a confrontation between 400 police and 5,000 demonstrators. The violence and disagreement between the government and the police led to a Royal Commission on this Moratorium Demonstration.

Subjects
Period : 1946-1979
Further reading :

Australian Vietnam Forces National Memorial Vietnam, Canberra : Dept. of Veterans' Affairs, 2002

Crowe, Ambrose. The battle after the war : the story of Australia's Vietnam veterans, St. Leonards, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 1999

Doyle, Jeff, Jeffrey Grey, and Peter Pierce. Australia's Vietnam War, College Station : Texas A&M University Press, c2002

McKay, Gary. Bullets, beans and bandages : Australians at war in Vietnam, St Leonards, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin , 1999

McKay, Gary. Viet Nam shots : a photographic account of Australians at war, St Leonards, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 2002

Murphy, John. Harvest of fear : a history of Australia's Vietnam War, St Leonards, N.S.W. : Allen & Unwin, 1993

Woodruff, Mark W. Unheralded victory : who won the Vietnam War?, London : HarperCollins, 2000

Internet links :

Anzac Day Commemoration Committee (Queensland) See: History: Vietnam

The Australian Veteran and the Vietnam Experience
Compiled by R (Bob) Teusner, ex-9RAR

Australian War Memorial See: Australians at War: Australian Military History Overview: Vietnam War 1962-1975

Australian Army History Unit [Department of Defence]: See: History & Battles: History Index

Vietnam War 1962-72

Australians at War [Department of Veterans' Affairs]

"Don't forget your cotton underwear girls!": Australian Army Nurses in the Vietnam War (1967-1971)
Paper by Narelle Biedermann, School of Nursing Sciences, James Cook University, Queensland

Sea Power Centre - Australia: See: History: Feature Articles [several articles about the Vietnam War]

Under Fire: Images from Vietnam [Piece Unique Gallery]

Victorians at War - Oral History project [Department of Veterans' Affairs and State Library of Victoria]: See: Overview: Vietnam

Vietnam Veterans' Association of Australia See: Education: Chronology of Events


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