Michael Kramer

A Gracious Enemy Michael Kramer

As Australia's Government wanted to enter the conflict in Indochina, no matter what the cost, senior government figures were speaking. a quote from a meeting held to discuss the problem went something like this. "Bob, I thought that you would have been an astute and clever enough a politician to think of this yourself, but seeing how you have asked me, I suggest that you wait until eight in the night on Thursday the 29th of April to announce that Australia will send the First Battalion Royal Australian Regiment to fight in South Vietnam. By you waiting until the evening of 29/April/1965 to announce this in Parliament, the Labour Opposition leader of Arthur Caldwell and his deputy leader of Gough Whitlam should be absent, as will most of the rest f the Parliament. Because the following day is the beginning of a long weekend. You are legally not required to give advanced notice of this to the house, so you can easily get away with this! The Australian public will not know anything until the following Monday or Tuesday and by then, the First battalion will be in Vietnam. After that, Aussie soldiers at first believed what they were told. However, after they had been in Vietnam for some time and began to find out the truth of the situation, most Australian infantry and other active fighting forces doubted both their own and the American Governments.