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How did the australian government respond to the threat of communism after wwii both in asia and within australia

Australia was faced with the threat of communism, after World War II ended in 1945. This threat is known as ??? The Red Menace???, the ??? Red Menace??? was caused by all the conflicts in Asia and also things that were going on in Australia at the time. The Australian Government responded to the ??? Red Menace in many ways, they took military action, made alliances, gave economic aid and tried banning the Communist Party in Australia. Communism is a social organisation system where everyone in the country/community, all have common property and money is shared equally.

Communism became a threat after WWII because the Soviet Union was a communist country and also one of the two ??? super powers??™(the other was the United States of America), the Soviet Union started spreading communism throughout the countries that they had gained from Germany, during WWII. The United States and it??™s allies were opposed to communism so they formed the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), in the west of Europe while on the eastern communist Countries of Europe formed an alliance called the ??? Warsaw Pact??™. The two powers formed a divide in Europe know as the ??? Iron Curtain??™. Australia didn??™t see communism as a threat until China was taken into control and turned into a communist country, then Australians started to fear that it would only be a matter of time ??? before the reds were on our doorsteps??™.

Australia responded to the threat of Communism in Asian by joining the Korean War in 1950, we joined it because we had a belief that it would be better to fight Communism overseas rather than wait for it to reach Australia and fight it here. The Korean War was a part of our government??™s ??? Forward Defense Policy??™, military aid was sent to Korean to help our allies to fight Communism overseas. The Korean War caused by the two powers, the Soviet troop in communist north Korea and American??™s were in the south. Another response to Communism in Asian was the ANZUS treaty was one of the most important steps that Australia took to protect Australia from the threat of Communism.

The treaty was an agreement signed by the United States, New Zealand and Australia; it meant that each of the three nations involved would go to aid of the other if one was attacked, it was an agreement of aid in common defense. The reason why it was signed by Australia was because we believed that a strong ally was needed to keep Australia safe from Communism. There was also, another defense agreement that Australia got involved with it??™s called the SEATO alliance. The SEATO alliance was signed by Britain, Thailand, Pakistan, the Philippines, France, New Zealand, Australia and the US in 1945. The alliance was started by the United States because of the increased communist activity in South East Asian in 1945, the Korean War had just ended and communist activity was spreading to France and communist guerrillas were currently active in Malaya. These made the United States feel vulnerable so they proposed an alliance with the East Asian Countries to fight ??? communist aggression??™.

Australia was very happy to sign this alliance because it confirmed to the US that we had their back, and it supported our ??? forward defense policy??™. Australia later joined the Vietnam War, to support their role of an ally and maintain a close tie with the United States, in 1962 Prime Minister Robert Menzies began sending Australian troops to South Vietnam where Vietcong, were trying to overthrow non-communist South Vietnam. The reason why Australia felt that it was vital to support the United States in this war was because of the advice we received from Washington telling us that if we supported the United States fight north Vietnam, then when Australia needs military assistance USA would help us. Fear of communism was another reason that lead Australia to fighting in the Vietnam War. We were afraid that if one more Asian Country fell to communism other countries as well as Australia would follow; we called this the ??? Domino Theory??™.

We believed that the more Asian countries that fell to communism the closer we were to being next to be under attack by communism. As well as responding to the threat of Communism overseas Australia also took precautions within itself. In 1949 Robert Menzies promised to ban the communist party in Australia, because of increased fears of Australia falling to communism. After winning the election Prime Minister Robert Menzies introduced the Communist Party Dissolution Bill, which outlawed the Communist Party, made it forbidden for a person declared communist to hold a job in the trade union movement or in the government organization, and if you were declared you would have to prove your innocence.

The bill was ruled ??? unconstitutional??™ by the high court and also narrowly defeated after a referendum was held. By 19454 most Australia??™s were aware of the threat of Communism and were quite worried, it was time for an election and the labor party was pretty confident that they were going to win the next election, Prime Minister Menzies may have felt the same, just shortly before the election they was a huge ??? spy scare??™, Evdokia Petrov??™s who defected from the USSR with her husband and who worked in the labor party in government was accused of being part of a Soviet spy ring in Australia. She was dragged onto a plane by Soviet guards and was going to be sent to Moscow but a flight attendant asked her if she was happy being escorted back to the USSR, she didn??™t give a clear answer, so the flight attendant and crew radioed the awaiting ASIO officers in Darwin, and Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, decided that he could not allow her to be removed like that. When the aircraft stopped for refuelling at Darwin, she was taken by KGB men by ASIO officials, who gave her the option of joining her husband and defect to Australia.

She decided to defect and join her husband. The Royal Commission continued to search for any spy rings and uncovered some evidence of espionage for the Soviet Union by some members and supporters of the Communist Party of Australia during and immediately after World War II, but no one was charged and no major spy ring was uncovered. The Australian government responded to the threat of communism in many ways, the attempts within Australia failed but the responses in Asia must have succeeded, because we??™re not a communist country. In Asia, Australia fought in the Korean and Vietnam War made alliances with Britain, Thailand, Pakistan, the Philippines, France, New Zealand, and a very strong one with the United States. Bibliographyhttp://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Petrov_affairhttp://dictionary. reference. com/dicq= communism http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Robert_MenziesMy book??? Topic 1: Australia in the Vietnam War Era??? Australia??™s Response to the threat of communism in Asia??? Australia??™s response to the threat of communism within Australia??? Australia??™s involvement in the Vietnam war; school certificate style question

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