Join us for How Australia Goes to War: The lessons of the Vietnam Era, Thursday 8th May 2014 6:00pm to 7:30pm internationalaffairs.org.au/events/how-australia-goes-to-war-the-lessons-of-the-vietnam-era/ The Vietnam War was Australia’s longest and most controversial military commitment of the twentieth century. Provoking deep division in Australian society and politics, the war ended in humiliation for the United States and its allies with the downfall of South Vietnam. For years afterwards, anything associated with the Vietnam War, including ‘forward defence’, the ‘domino theory’ and the American alliance, was regarded as tainted if not immoral. Even the term ‘Vietnam veteran’ carried negative connotations, as it was alleged that many were physically or mentally damaged by ‘Agent Orange’ or post-traumatic stress disorder. Now much has changed. Australia has joined the United States in conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Vietnam War has been incorporated into the Anzac tradition. For the second time, a Vietnam veteran has been appointed to the highest office in the land. So how do the great issues of the Vietnam era look with half a century’s hindsight? Were we fighting ‘other people’s wars’? What are the lessons of the Vietnam War, and other conflicts of that era, for Australia in the twenty-first century? What can we learn from the way in which the Australian government entered commitments in Southeast Asia, not only Vietnam but also the Malayan Emergency and the Indonesian Confrontation, in the third quarter of the twentieth-century? As the leading authority on Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam conflict, AIIA Victoria is pleased to welcome Dr Peter Edwards AM to share his insights into how Australia goes to war. Best known as the Official Historian of Australia’s involvement in Southeast Asian conflicts, Dr Edwards has recently published Australia and the Vietnam War, a distillation of many of the insights of the nine-volume Official History. Dr Edwards is a writer, historian and biographer who has published extensively on Australian and international history and politics. He is currently an Adjunct Professor at Deakin University and has in recent years held professorial appointments at Flinders University in Adelaide and the University of New South Wales, Canberra. Please book at least one day before if you plan to attend this event. Members $20 student members $10 Non-members $30 student non-members $15 For enquiries contact [email protected] or 9654 7271
Posted on: Sat, 12 Apr 2014 07:22:28 +0000
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