Editing History of Australia (section)

==Post-war boom==
{{Main|History of Australia since 1945}}

===Menzies and Liberal dominance: 1949–72===
[[File:Portrait Menzies 1950s.jpg|thumb|left|[[Robert Menzies|Sir Robert Menzies]], founder of the [[Liberal Party of Australia]] and [[Prime Minister of Australia]] 1939–41 ([[United Australia Party|UAP]]) and 1949–66]]

Politically, [[Robert Menzies]] and the [[Liberal Party of Australia]] dominated much of the immediate post war era, defeating the Labor government of [[Ben Chifley]] in 1949, in part because of a Labor proposal to nationalise banks<ref>Jan Bassett (1986) p. 18</ref> and following a crippling coal strike led by the [[Australian Communist Party]]. Menzies became the country's longest-serving prime minister and the Liberal party, in [[Coalition (Australia)|coalition]] with the rural based [[National Party of Australia|Country Party]], won every federal election until 1972.

As in the United States in the early 1950s, allegations of communist influence in society saw tensions emerge in politics. Refugees from Soviet dominated Eastern Europe immigrated to Australia, while to Australia's north, [[Mao Zedong]]'s [[Chinese Communist Party]] won the [[Chinese Civil War]] in 1949 and in June 1950, Communist [[North Korea]] invaded [[South Korea]]. The Menzies government responded to a United States led [[United Nations Security Council]] request for military aid for South Korea and diverted forces from [[occupied Japan]] to begin Australia's involvement in the [[Australia in the Korean War|Korean War]]. After fighting to a bitter standstill, the UN and North Korea signed a ceasefire agreement in July 1953. Australian forces had participated in such major battles as [[Battle of Kapyong|Kapyong]] and [[Battle of Maryang San|Maryang San]]. 17,000 Australians had served and casualties amounted to more than 1,500, of whom 339 were killed.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/korea.asp|title=AWM.gov.au|publisher=AWM.gov.au|access-date=14 July 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107181032/http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/korea.asp|archive-date=7 January 2012}}</ref>

[[File:QueenElizabeth InspectingSheep WaggaWagga 1954.jpg|thumb|Queen [[Elizabeth II]] inspecting sheep at [[Wagga Wagga]] on her 1954 Royal Tour. Huge crowds greeted the Royal party across Australia.]]

During the course of the [[Korean War]], the Liberal government attempted to ban the [[Communist Party of Australia]], first by legislation in 1950 and later by referendum, in 1951.<ref>See Menzies in Frank Crowley (1973) ''Modern Australia in Documents, 1939–1970''. pp. 222–26. Wren Publishing, Melbourne. {{ISBN|978-0-17-005300-6}}</ref> While both attempts were unsuccessful, further international events such as the defection of minor Soviet Embassy official [[Petrov Affair|Vladimir Petrov]], added to a sense of impending threat that politically favoured Menzies' Liberal-CP government, as the Labor Party split over concerns about the influence of the Communist Party on the trade union movement. The tensions led to another [[Australian Labor Party split of 1955|bitter split]] and the emergence of the breakaway [[Democratic Labor Party (Australia, 1955)|Democratic Labor Party]] (DLP). The DLP remained an influential political force, often holding the balance of power in the Senate, until 1974. Its preferences supported the Liberal and Country Party.<ref>Jan Bassett (1986) pp. 75–76</ref> The Labor party was led by [[H.V. Evatt]] after Chifley's death in 1951. Evatt had served as [[President of the United Nations General Assembly]] during 1948–49 and helped draft the [[United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights]] (1948). Evatt retired in 1960 amid signs of mental ill-health, and [[Arthur Calwell]] succeeded him as leader, with a young [[Gough Whitlam]] as his deputy.<ref>[http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/evatt-herbert-vere-bert-10131 Biography – Herbert Vere (Bert) Evatt] ''Australian Dictionary of Biography''</ref>

Menzies presided during a period of sustained economic boom and the beginnings of sweeping social change, which included [[youth culture]] and its [[Australian rock|rock and roll music]] and, in the late 1950s, the arrival of television broadcasting. In 1958, [[Australian country music]] singer [[Slim Dusty]], who would become the musical embodiment of rural Australia, had Australia's first international music chart hit with his [[bush ballad]] "[[Pub With No Beer]]",<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/2003/sep/20/guardianobituaries.artsobituaries|location=London|work=The Guardian|first=Dave|last=Laing|title=Slim Dusty|date=20 September 2003}}</ref> while [[rock and roll]]er [[Johnny O'Keefe]]'s "[[Wild One (Johnny O'Keefe song)|Wild One]]" became the first local recording to reach the national charts, peaking at No. 20.<ref name="Kent">{{cite book|title=Australian Chart Book 1940–1970|last=Kent|first=David|author-link=David Kent (historian)|publisher=Australian Chart Book, 2005|location=[[Turramurra, New South Wales|Turramurra]], N.S.W.|year=2005|isbn=0-646-44439-5|title-link=Kent Music Report}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/longway/discography/|title=Long Way to the Top|publisher=[[Australian Broadcasting Corporation]]|access-date=28 May 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080530145120/http://www.abc.net.au/longway/discography/|archive-date=30 May 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> [[Australian cinema]] produced little of its own content in the 1950s, but British and Hollywood studios produced a string of successful epics from [[Australian literature]], featuring home grown stars [[Chips Rafferty]] and [[Peter Finch]].

Menzies remained a staunch supporter of links to the [[monarchy of Australia|monarchy]] and [[Commonwealth of Nations]] and formalised an [[ANZUS|alliance with the United States]], but also launched post-war trade with Japan, beginning a growth of Australian exports of coal, iron ore and mineral resources that would steadily climb until Japan became Australia's largest trading partner.<ref>{{cite web|author=Chris Uhlmann|url=http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/30/2886680.htm?site=thedrum|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100503053310/http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/30/2886680.htm?site=thedrum|url-status=dead|archive-date=3 May 2010|title=Conviction? Clever Kevin is no Pig Iron Bob|work=The Drum|location=Australia|date=30 April 2010|access-date=14 July 2011}}</ref>

When Menzies retired in 1965, he was replaced as Liberal leader and prime minister by [[Harold Holt]]. Holt drowned while swimming at a surf beach in December 1967 and was replaced by [[John Gorton]] (1968–1971) and then by [[William McMahon]] (1971–1972).

===Post-war immigration===
{{Main|Post-war immigration to Australia|History of immigration to Australia}}
[[File:Dutch Migrant 1954 MariaScholte=50000thToAustraliaPostWW2.jpg|thumb|Postwar migrants arriving in Australia in 1954]]
[[File:Railway Square, ca. 1945.jpg|thumb|right|After World War II and by the 1950s, Australia had a population of 10 million, and the most populous urban centre was its oldest city, [[Sydney]]. It has retained its status as Australia's largest city ever since.]]

Following World War II, the [[Ben Chifley|Chifley]] Labor government instigated a massive programme of European immigration. In 1945, Minister for Immigration, [[Arthur Calwell]] wrote "If the experience of the Pacific War has taught us one thing, it surely is that seven million Australians cannot hold three million square miles of this earth's surface indefinitely."<ref>House of Representatives Hansard, 2 August 1945, pp. 4911–15. Arthur Calwell – White Paper on Immigration. [http://john.curtin.edu.au/1940s/populate/index.html john.curtin.edu.au] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110306041307/http://john.curtin.edu.au/1940s/populate/index.html |date=6 March 2011 }}</ref> All political parties shared the view that the country must "populate or perish". Calwell stated a preference for ten British immigrants for each one from other countries; however, the numbers of British migrants fell short of what was expected, despite government assistance.<ref>Michal Dugan and Josef Swarc (1984) ''There Goes the Neighbourhood! Australia's Migrant Experience''. p. 138 Macmillan, South Melbourne. {{ISBN|0-333-35712-4}}</ref>

Migration brought large numbers of southern and central Europeans to Australia for the first time. A 1958 government leaflet assured readers that unskilled non-British migrants were needed for "labour on rugged projects ... work which is not generally acceptable to Australians or British workers".<ref>cited in Michael Dugan and Josef Swarc (1984) p. 139</ref> The Australian economy stood in sharp contrast to war-ravaged Europe, and newly arrived migrants found employment in a booming manufacturing industry and government assisted programmes such as the [[Snowy Mountains Scheme]]. This [[hydroelectricity]] and [[irrigation in Australia|irrigation]] complex in south-east Australia consisted of sixteen major dams and seven power stations constructed between 1949 and 1974. It remains the largest engineering project undertaken in Australia. Necessitating the employment of 100,000 people from [[Post-war immigration to Australia|more than 30 countries]], to many it denoted the birth of multicultural Australia.<ref name="The Snowy Mountains Scheme">{{cite web|url=http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/snowyscheme/|title=The Snowy Mountains Scheme|publisher=Cultureandrecreation.gov.au|date=20 March 2008|access-date=14 July 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070830103344/http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/snowyscheme/|archive-date=30 August 2007}}</ref>
Some 4.2&nbsp;million immigrants arrived between 1945 and 1985, about 40 per cent of whom came from Britain and Ireland.<ref>Jan Bassett (1986) pp. 138–39</ref> The 1957 novel ''[[They're a Weird Mob]]'' was a popular account of an Italian migrating to Australia, although written by Australian-born author [[John O'Grady (writer)|John O'Grady]]. The Australian population reached 10 million in 1959–with Sydney its most populous city.

In May 1958, the [[Robert Menzies|Menzies]] Government passed the [[Migration Act 1958]] which replaced the Immigration Restriction Act's arbitrarily applied dictation test with an entry permit system, that reflected economic and skills criteria.<ref>Jan Bassett (1986) p. 273</ref><ref>Frank Crowley (1973) p. 358</ref> Further changes in the 1960s effectively ended the [[White Australia Policy]]. It legally ended in 1973.

===Economic growth and suburban living===
[[File:Tumut3GeneratingStation.jpg|thumb|[[Tumut 3]] power station was constructed as part of the vast [[Snowy Mountains Scheme|Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme]] (1949–1974). Construction necessitated the expansion of Australia's immigration programme.]]

Australia enjoyed significant growth in prosperity in the 1950s and 1960s, with increases in both living standards and in leisure time.<ref name="Susan_Something">{{cite book|editor-first=Susan|editor-last=Hosking|display-editors=etal|title=Something Rich and Strange: Sea Changes, Beaches and the Littoral in the Antipodes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6mQ_-ZD5xBUC&pg=PA6|year=2009|publisher=Wakefield Press|isbn=978-1-86254-870-1|page=6}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first1=Brian|last1=Hodge|first2=Allen|last2=Whitehurst|title=Nation and People: An Introduction to Australia in a Changing World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qE0OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA184|year=1967|publisher=Hicks, Smith|page=184}}</ref> The manufacturing industry, previously playing a minor part in an economy dominated by primary production, greatly expanded. The first [[Holden]] motor car came out of General Motors-Holden's Fisherman's Bend factory in November 1948. Car ownership rapidly increased—from 130 owners in every 1,000 in 1949 to 271 owners in every 1,000 by 1961.<ref>Lynn Kerr and Ken Webb (1989) ''Australia and the World in the Twentieth Century''. pp. 123–24 McGraw Hill Australia. {{ISBN|0-07-452615-4}}</ref> By the early 1960s, four competitors to Holden had set up Australian factories, employing between 80,000 and 100,000 workers, "at least four-fifths of them migrants".<ref name="Bolton-1990">Geoffrey Bolton (1990) ''The Oxford History of Australia'', Volume 5, 1942–1988, p. 99 Oxford University Press, Melbourne. {{ISBN|0-19-554613-X}}</ref>

In the 1960s, about 60 per cent of Australian manufacturing was protected by tariffs. Pressure from business interests and the union movement ensured these remained high. Historian Geoffrey Bolton suggests that this high tariff protection of the 1960s caused some industries to "lapse into lethargy", neglecting research and development and the search for new markets.<ref name="Bolton-1990"/> The [[CSIRO]] was expected to fulfil research and development.

Prices for wool and wheat remained high, with wool the mainstay of Australia's exports. Sheep numbers grew from 113 million in 1950 to 171&nbsp;million in 1965. Wool production increased from 518,000 to 819,000 tonnes in the same period.<ref>Geoffrey Bolton (1990) p. 92</ref> Wheat, wool and minerals ensured a healthy balance of trade between 1950 and 1966.<ref>Geoffrey Bolton (1990) p. 97</ref>

The great housing boom of the post war period saw rapid growth in the suburbs of the major Australian cities. By the 1966 census, only 14 per cent lived in rural Australia, down from 31 per cent in 1933, and only 8 per cent lived on farms.<ref>Geoffrey Bolton (1990) p. 122</ref> Virtual full employment meant high standards of living and dramatic increases in home ownership, and by the sixties, Australia had the most equitable spread of income in the world.<ref>The New Rulers of the World by John Pilger</ref> By the beginning of the sixties, an Australia-wide McNair survey estimated that 94% of homes had a fridge, 50% a telephone, 55% a television, 60% a washing machine, and 73% a vacuum cleaner. In addition, most households had now acquired a car.<ref>{{cite book|first1=Robert|last1=Crawford|first2=Kim|last2=Humphery|title=Consumer Australia: Historical Perspectives|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S1kaBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA174|date=9 June 2010|publisher=Cambridge Scholars Publishing|isbn=978-1-4438-2305-0|page=174}}</ref> According to one study, "In 1946, there was one car for every 14 Australians; by 1960, it was one to 3.5. The vast majority of families had access to a car."<ref name="Susan_Something"/>

Car ownership flourished during the postwar period, with 1970/1971 census data estimating that 96.4 per cent of Australian households in the early Seventies owned at least one car; however, not all felt the rapid suburban growth was desirable.<ref>{{cite book|first=Jim|last=Kemeny|title=The Myth of Home-ownership: Private Versus Public Choices in Housing Tenure|url=https://archive.org/details/mythofhomeowners0000keme|url-access=registration|date=1 January 1981|publisher=Routledge & Kegan Paul|isbn=978-0-7100-0634-9|pages=[https://archive.org/details/mythofhomeowners0000keme/page/50 50]–}}</ref> Distinguished Architect and designer [[Robin Boyd (architect)|Robin Boyd]], a critic of Australia's built surroundings, described Australia as "'the constant sponge lying in the Pacific', following the fashions of overseas and lacking confidence in home-produced, original ideas".<ref>Geoffrey Bolton (1990) p. 123</ref> In 1956, [[dadaism|dadaist]] comedian [[Barry Humphries]] performed the character of [[Edna Everage]] as a parody of a house-proud housewife of staid 1950s Melbourne suburbia (the character only later morphed into a critique of self-obsessed celebrity culture). It was the first of many of his satirical stage and screen creations based around quirky Australian characters: [[Sandy Stone (Barry Humphries character)|Sandy Stone]], a morose elderly suburbanite, [[Barry McKenzie]] a naive Australian expat in London and [[Sir Les Patterson]], a vulgar parody of a Whitlam-era politician.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/barryhumphries/|title=Cultureandrecreation.gov.au|publisher=Cultureandrecreation.gov.au|date=7 February 2007|access-date=14 July 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110410090505/http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/barryhumphries/|archive-date=10 April 2011}}</ref>

Some writers defended suburban life. Journalist Craig Macgregor saw suburban life as a "...solution to the needs of migrants..." Hugh Stretton argued that "plenty of dreary lives are indeed lived in the suburbs... but most of them might well be worse in other surroundings".<ref>Cited in Geoffrey Bolton (1990) p. 124</ref> Historian Peter Cuffley has recalled life for a child in a new outer suburb of Melbourne as having a kind of joyous excitement. "Our imaginations saved us from finding life too humdrum, as did the wild freedom of being able to roam far and wide in different kinds of (neighbouring) bushland...Children in the suburbs found space in backyards, streets and lanes, playgrounds and reserves..."<ref>Peter Cuffley (1993) ''Australian Houses of the Forties and Fifties.'' p. 26. The Five Mile Press, Victoria. {{ISBN|0-86788-578-5}}</ref>

In 1954, the [[Robert Menzies|Menzies Government]] formally announced the introduction of the new two-tiered TV system—a government-funded service run by the [[Australian Broadcasting Corporation|ABC]], and two commercial services in Sydney and [[Melbourne]], with the [[1956 Summer Olympics]] in [[Melbourne]] being a major driving force behind the introduction of television to Australia.<ref name="first24">{{Citation|title=Australian Television: the first 24 years|publisher=Nelsen/Cinema Papers|year=1980|page=3|location=[[Melbourne]]}}</ref> Colour TV began broadcasting in 1975.

=== Indigenous civil rights, assimilation and child removal ===

The Menzies era (1949–1972) saw significant strides in civil rights for indigenous Australians. Over the period, Menzies and his successors dismantled remaining restrictions on voting rights for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples culminating in the Menzies Government's 1962 ''Commonwealth Electoral Act'', while the Holt Government's landmark [[1967 Australian referendum (Aboriginals)|1967 Referendum]] received overwhelming public support for the transfer of responsibility for Aboriginal Affairs to the Federal Government, and the removal of discriminatory provisions regarding the national census from the [[Australian Constitution]]. By 1971, the first Aboriginal Senator was sitting on the government benches, with [[Neville Bonner]] becoming a Liberal Senator for QLD.<ref>[https://biography.senate.gov.au/bonner-neville-thomas/ Neville Bonner]; Biographical Dictionary of the Australian Senate</ref>

[[File:Harold Holt and FCAATSI.jpg|thumb|Prime Minister [[Harold Holt]] with Aboriginal rights campaigners ahead of the [[1967 Australian referendum (Aboriginals)|1967 Referendum]].]]
[[File:Neville Bonner 1979.jpg|thumb|Liberal Senator [[Neville Bonner]], the first federal parliamentarian to identify as Aboriginal, joined the Senate in 1971]]

During this period, the policy of assimilation attracted increasing criticism from Aboriginal people and their supporters on the grounds of its negative effects on Aboriginal families and its denial of Aboriginal cultural autonomy. Removals of Aboriginal children of mixed descent from their families slowed by the late 1960s and by 1973 the Commonwealth had adopted a policy of [[self-determination]] for Indigenous Australians.<ref>Broome, Richard (2019). p. 215-17, 230</ref>

The 1951 Native Welfare Conference of state and Commonwealth officials had agreed on a policy of cultural assimilation for all Aboriginal Australians. [[Paul Hasluck]], the Commonwealth Minister for Territories, stated: "Assimilation means, in practical terms, that, in the course of time, it is expected that all persons of aboriginal blood or mixed blood in Australia will live like other white Australians do."<ref name="humanrights-1997"/><ref name="Broome, Richard 2019. p. 212"/>

Controls over the daily lives of Aboriginal people and the removal of Aboriginal children of mixed descent continued under the policy of assimilation, although the control was now largely exercised by Welfare Boards and removals were justified on welfare grounds. The number of Aboriginal people deemed to be wards of the state under Northern Territory welfare laws doubled to 11,000 from 1950 to 1965.<ref>Broome, Richard (2019). p. 212-13</ref>

In 1997, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission estimated that between 10 per cent and one-third of Aboriginal children had been removed from their families from 1910 to 1970. Regional studies indicate that 15 per cent of Aboriginal children were removed in New South Wales from 1899 to 1968, while the figure for Victoria was about 10 per cent.<ref name="Broome-2015">Broome, Richard (2015). p. 215</ref> Robert Manne estimates that the figure for Australia as a whole was closer to 10 per cent.<ref>Flood, Josephine (2019). p. 285</ref>

Summarising the policy of assimilation and forced removals of Aboriginal children of mixed descent, Richard Broome concludes: "Even though the children's material conditions and Western education may have been improved by removal, even though some removals were necessary, and even though some people were thankful for it in retrospect, overall it was a disaster....It was a rupturing of tens of thousands of Aboriginal families, aimed at eradicating Aboriginality from the nation in the cause of homogeneity and in fear of difference."<ref name="Broome-2015" />

===Alliances 1950–1972===

In the early 1950s, the Menzies government saw Australia as part of a "triple alliance" in concert with both the US and traditional ally Britain.<ref>Glen Barclay and Joseph Siracusa (1976) ''Australian American Relations Since 1945'', pp. 35–49. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Sydney. {{ISBN|0-03-900122-9}}</ref> At first, "the Australian leadership opted for a consistently pro-British line in diplomacy", while at the same time looking for opportunities to involve the US in South East Asia.<ref>Glen Barclay and Joseph Siracusa (1976) p. 35</ref> Thus, the government committed military forces to the [[Korean War]] and the [[Malayan Emergency]] and hosted British [[British nuclear tests at Maralinga|nuclear tests]] after 1952.<ref>See Adrian Tame and F.P.J. Robotham (1982) ''Maralinga; British A-Bomb, Australian legacy'', p. 179, Fontana Books, Melbourne, {{ISBN|0-00-636391-1}}</ref> Australia was also the only Commonwealth country to offer support to the British during the [[Suez Crisis]].<ref>E.M. Andrews (1979) ''A History of Australian Foreign Policy'', p. 144, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne. {{ISBN|0-582-68253-3}}</ref>

Menzies oversaw an effusive welcome to Queen [[Elizabeth II]] on the first visit to Australia by a [[Monarchy of Australia|reigning monarch]], in 1954. He made the following remarks during a light-hearted speech to an American audience in New York, while on his way to attend her coronation in 1953: "We in Australia, of course, are British, if I may say so, to the boot heels...but we stand together – our people stand together – till the crack of doom."<ref>cited in Glen Barclay and Joseph Siracusa (1976) pp. 36–38</ref>

[[File:John F. Kennedy and Harold Holt.jpg|thumb|right|[[Harold Holt]] and US President [[John F. Kennedy]] in the [[Oval Office]] in Washington, D.C., 1963. By the 1960s, Australian defence policy had shifted from Britain to the US as key ally.]]

As British influence declined in South East Asia, the US alliance came to have greater significance for Australian leaders and the Australian economy. British investment in Australia remained significant until the late 1970s, but trade with Britain declined through the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1950s the Australian Army began to re-equip using US military equipment. In 1962, the US established a naval communications station at [[Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt|North West Cape]], the first of several built during the next decade.<ref>Glen Barclay and Joseph Siracusa (1976) p. 63</ref><ref>Also see Desmond Ball (1980) ''A suitable piece of real estate; American Installations in Australia''. Hale and Iremonger. Sydney. {{ISBN|0-908094-47-7}}</ref> Most significantly, in 1962, [[Australian Army Training Team Vietnam|Australian Army advisors]] were sent to help train South Vietnamese forces, in a developing conflict in which the British had no part.

According to diplomat [[Alan Renouf]], the dominant theme in Australia's foreign policy under Australia's Liberal–Country Party governments of the 1950s and 1960s was anti-communism.<ref>Alan Renouf (1979) ''The Frightened Country''. pp. 2–3.</ref> Another former diplomat, Gregory Clark, suggested that it was specifically a fear of China that drove Australian foreign policy decisions for twenty years.<ref>See Gregory Clark (1967) ''In fear of China''. Lansdowne Press.</ref> The [[ANZUS]] security treaty, which had been signed in 1951, had its origins in Australia's and New Zealand's fears of a rearmed Japan. Its obligations on the US, Australia and New Zealand are vague, but its influence on Australian foreign policy thinking, at times has been significant.<ref>See discussion on the role of ANZUS in Australia's commitment to the Vietnam War in Paul Ham (2007) ''Vietnam; The Australian War''. pp. 86–87 HarperCollins Publishers, Sydney. {{ISBN|978-0-7322-8237-0}}</ref> The [[SEATO]] treaty, signed only three years later, clearly demonstrated Australia's position as a US ally in the emerging [[Cold War]].<ref name="Cambridge University Press">{{Cite book|last1=Bridge|first1=Carl|title=The Cambridge History of Australia, Volume 2, The Commonwealth of Australia|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2013|isbn=9781107011540|editor-last=Bashford|editor-first=Alison|location=Melbourne|pages=531|chapter=Australia, Britain and the British Commonwealth|editor-last2=MacIntyre|editor-first2=Stuart}}</ref>

As Britain struggled to enter the Common Market in the 1960s, Australia saw that its historic ties with the mother country were rapidly fraying. Canberra was alarmed but kept a low profile, not wanting to alienate London. Russel Ward states that the implications of [[European Communities Act 1972 (UK)|British entry into Europe in 1973]]: "seemed shattering to most Australians, particularly to older people and conservatives."<ref>Russell Ward, ''A Nation for a Continent: the history of Australia, 1901–1975'' (1977) p 343</ref> Carl Bridge, however, points out that Australia had been "hedging its British bets" for some time. The ANZUS treaty and Australia's decision to enter the Vietnam War did not involve Britain and by 1967 Japan was Australia's leading export partner and the US her largest source of imports. According to Bridge, Australia's decision not to follow Britain's devaluation of her currency in 1967 "marked the demise of British Australia."<ref name="Cambridge University Press"/>

===Vietnam War===
{{Main|Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War}}
[[File:RAAF TFV (HD-SN-99-02052).jpg|thumb|left|Personnel and aircraft of [[No. 35 Squadron RAAF|RAAF Transport Flight Vietnam]] arrive in [[South Vietnam]] in August 1964.]]

By 1965, Australia had increased the size of the [[Australian Army Training Team Vietnam]] (AATTV), and in April the Government made a sudden announcement that "after close consultation with the United States", a battalion of troops was to be sent to [[South Vietnam]].<ref>E.M. Andrews (1979) p. 160</ref> In parliament, Menzies emphasised the argument that "our alliances made demands on us". The alliance involved was presumably, the [[Southeast Asia Treaty Organization]] (SEATO), and Australia was providing military assistance because South Vietnam, a signatory to SEATO, had apparently requested it.<ref>Glen Barclay and Joseph Siracusa (1976) p. 74</ref> [[Pentagon Papers|Documents released]] in 1971 indicated that the decision to commit troops was made by Australia and the US, not at the request of South Vietnam.<ref>See discussion in E.M. Andrews (1979) pp. 172–73</ref> By 1968, there were three Australian Army battalions at any one time at the [[1st Australian Task Force]] (1ATF) base at [[Nui Dat]] in addition to the advisers of the AATTV placed throughout Vietnam, and personnel reached a peak total of almost 8,000, comprising about one third of the Army's combat capacity. Between 1962 and 1972 almost 60,000 personnel served in Vietnam, including ground troops, naval forces and air assets.<ref name="Elkins">Ashley Elkins, Australian War Memorial: Overview of Australian military involvement in the Vietnam War, 1962–1975. [http://www.awm.gov.au/exhibitions/impressions/impressions.asp AWM.gov.au]</ref>

In July 1966, new Prime Minister [[Harold Holt]] expressed his government's support for the US and its role in Vietnam in particular. "I don't know where people would choose to look for the security of this country were it not for the friendship and strength of the United States."<ref>Glen Barclay and Joseph Siracusa (1976) p. 79</ref> While on a visit in the same year to the US, Holt assured President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] "...I hope there is corner of your mind and heart which takes cheer from the fact that you have an admiring friend, a staunch friend, [Australia] that will be all the way with LBJ."<ref>Jan Bassett (1986) p. 265</ref>

The Liberal-CP Government was returned with a massive majority in [[1966 Australian federal election|elections held in December 1966]], fought over national security issues including Vietnam. The opposition Labor Party had advocated the withdrawal of all conscripts from Vietnam, but its deputy leader [[Gough Whitlam]] had stated that a Labor government might maintain regular army troops there.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Lavelle|first=Ashley|date=May 2006|title=Labor and Vietnam: A Reappraisal|journal=Labour History|volume=90|issue=90|pages=119–36|doi=10.2307/27516117|jstor=27516117|hdl=10072/13911|hdl-access=free}}</ref> Arthur Calwell, who had been leader of the Labor Party since 1960, retired in favour of Whitlam a few months later.

Despite Holt's sentiments and his government's electoral success in 1966, the war became unpopular in Australia, as it did in the United States. The movements to end Australia's involvement gathered strength after the [[Tet Offensive]] of early 1968 and compulsory national service (selected by ballot) became increasingly unpopular. In the [[1969 Australian federal election|1969 elections]], the government hung on despite a significant decline in popularity. [[Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam#Australia|Moratorium marches]] held across Australia in mid-1970 attracted large crowds—the Melbourne march of 100,000 being led by Labor MP [[Jim Cairns]]. As the Nixon administration proceeded with [[Vietnamization]] of the war and began the withdrawal of troops, so did the Australian Government. In November 1970 [[1st Australian Task Force]] was reduced to two battalions and in November 1971, 1ATF was withdrawn from Vietnam. The last military advisers of the AATTV were withdrawn by the Whitlam Labor government in mid-December 1972.<ref name="Elkins"/>

The Australian military presence in Vietnam had lasted 10 years, and in purely human cost, more than 500 had been killed and more than 2,000 wounded. The war cost Australia $218&nbsp;million between 1962 and 1972.<ref name="Elkins"/>