COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA
SPEECH BY
The Rt Hon. HAROLD HOLT, M. P.,
ON
VIETNAM
Ministerial Statement 1 5 NOV 1967
i BR AV,
[ From the ' Parliamentary Debate?, 17 October 1967]
Mr HAROLD HOLT ( Higgins-Prime
Minister>-by leave-There have been, as
honourable members know, two major
political and military matters in South East
Asia before the Cabinet in recent months.
They are the British decision to limit its
role east of Suez and the situation in Vietnam.
The Government has had these great
and serious matters under continuous review
and has been having a close exchange
of views with our allies and friends. I have
today to inform the House of certain
decisions the Government has taken on the
most immediate and the most pressing of
these two issues; that is, the situation in
Vietnam. Before dealing with this in some detail,
may I refer briefly to the British Government's
plans to reduce in stages, Britain's
military presence in Malaysia-Singapore.
This has to be seen against the background
of our own judgment that security and
stability in South East Asia are of first
importance for Australia and we recognise
the need to act positively to maintain that
security and stability and also to assist in
the development of the region.
Consultations with our allies and friends
in South East Asia on these matters are
continuing. My colleagues and I have just
14519/ 67 had the benefit of discussions here in Canberra
with the New Zealand Prime Minister,
Mr Holyoake. I am happy to say there is
a close identity of views with New Zealand
on our common strategic interests in South
East Asia. There is much still to be done,
however, to shape a long-term programme,
in concert with friendly and interested
governments, to the changes which will
follow from the British land withdrawal
from the Malaysia-Singapore region. This
will ' take some time, because the pace is
niot set by one nation alone, ' but by several,
each with a different set of problems.
In the meantime, our immediate preoccupation
is with Vietnam. This is the
most urgent of our current extertial problems,
and it is basic to all our aspirations
for security in Asia. It is in Vietnam that
aggressive Communist pressure-the greatest
political danger in Asia today-is most
severe and direct, and it is in this area
that we must, for the time being, concentrate
much of our defence effort and
resources. There the tide of Communist
expansion is being checked and turned.
But, with no sign as yet emerging that the
North Vietnamese are ready to negotiate,
it is the view of our allies and ourselves
that the military pressure must be sustained
and indeed increased if we are to secure
even more decisive results in the fieldresults
which might lead North Vietnam
to negotiations.
There have been recent visits by Ministers
to Vietnam and to the United States, including
my own visit to Washington last
June when I had detailed discussions with
President Johnson, Mr McNamara, Mr
Rusk and various military authorities, on
the outlook in Vietnam. The President sent
two special envoys to this country-Mr
Clifford and General Maxwell Taylor-who
gave us a valuable survey of progress being
made and of likely trends. Their's was a
range of visits to other countries allied in
Vietnam. As I said earlier, Mr Holyoake has been
here for on the spot talks. Since then, the
Minister for External Affairs ( Mr Hasluck)
has had discussions with President Johnson
and other senior members of the Administration
in Washington in the last week or
so. From all these exchanges the Government
has had the best information and the
most considered assessments to add to its
own. These have strengthened the Government's
confidence that its decisions on our
commitment in Vietnam have been soundly
based, and they have confirmed that we are
making significant progress. There can be
no question of our determination to pursue
our efforts through to the end until we have
achieved our objective-peace and security
for South Vietnam and South East Asia.
I am confident the majority of the Australian
people will continue to give their
support to this policy and will want us to
make a measured contribution which will
give effective support to the allied effort.
The public debate on Vietnam goes on in
various forms here and abroad and, because
it does, I want to re-state very briefly
why we are there and why we must continue
to honour our commitment to support
South Vietnam. Let me repeat, in simple
terms, why we are in Vietnam. We are
there because we believe in the right of
people to be free. We are there because
we responded to an appeal for aid against
aggression. We are there because security
and stability in South East Asia are vital
to our own security and stability. We are
there because we want peace, not war, and
independence, not serfdom, to be the lot
of the peoples of Asia. We are . there because we do not believe that our great Pacific
partner, the United States, should stand
alone for freedom. We will continue to be
there while the aggression persists because,
as a free and independent nation, we cannot
honourably do otherwise.
There are, from time to time, chargesall
unwarranted and quite baseless-that the
Government seeks only a military solution,
that it is determined to win in the tiringline
and that this is our only objective. I
say this: We are determined, and so are
our allies, that we will not be defeated in
-the firing-line. Fortunately there is no real
risk that we can be. The military situation
has been improving steadily, and if we
sustain our progress we are daily securing
the time and enlarging the opportunity for
a response by Hanoi to the repeated offers
to negotiate for peace, free of conditions,
with honour and regard for the rights of
the South Vietnamese people.
In Manila last year, South Vietnam and
its allies, including Australia, pledged themselves
to continue to resist aggression until
it ceased and, at the same time, to seek
earnestly, by every means, a just and lasting
peace. This has been the consistent position
of the United States, the Australian
Government and the other allies in Vietnam,
and it remains our hope that a political
rather than a military solution will be
found. We remain, as we have been at all
times, flexible so that even the faintest
prospect of peace talks can be encouraged.
We have on several occasions suggested
that the Geneva Agreement of 1954 might
provide a suitable basis. There may be
other ways. The allies are ready to talk
about them if they open up and to keep
on taking initiatives themselves.
But the North Vietnamese leaders have
turned down every approach, public and
private. They have done no more than
declare that talks ' could be' or ' might be'
held if the United States stopped bombing
North Vietnam unconditionally, unilaterally
and permanently. But having said that, the
North Vietnamese leaders have not said
that they would then enter into talks. But
they have made it clear that even if talks
did begin . they would keep up their own
military effort. So we must press on with
our action in Vietnam to ensure that the
people of South Vietnam shall not be conquered
by aggression and shall have the
right to choose their own way of life and
their own form of government. This was
our first and only military objective; it
remains our only military objective.
It is easy to suggest that allied strategy
in this area is dominated by an exaggerated
fear of Communism, but there is no
evidence that Communist forces in South
East Asia have given up their revolutionary
drive. The South Vietnamese people could
not stand on their own against a coordinated
Communist penetration. Our
recent assessments confirm our judgment
that if South Vietnam fell to a Communist
system of government, Communist pressures
against the neighbouring States would
continue, and in all probability would
increase. North Vietnamese regular forces
have already been identified in Laos and
guerillas trained in North Vietnam are
already operating in North East Thailand.
The independence and achievements of the
countries of . this region would be at risk if
aggression succeeded in South Vietnam.
I do not think we should ever lose sight
of the fact that this war in Vietnam is a
limited war-it is not being fought on the
pattern of declared wars of the past, where
all the stops were out and a patriotic fervour
and a face to face challenge of survival
were like battalions in action on the home
front. It is far away in personal terms, but
not nearly as far as the battlefields of the
Middle East or Europe. It is ugly-what
war isn't?-and it is prolonged. Yet Australian
forces fighting there are achieving
two immediate results. They are helping to
hold the aggressor in check and they are
giving the South Vietnamese security and
specific aid for the betterment of their
country. They are also manning a front line
of freedom for all of South East Asia.
The recent elections bear witness to South
Vietnam's constitutional and political
advancement. The economic and social progress
under the South Vietnamese Government's
Revolutionary Development Programme
is good. Australia has contributed
more than $ 12m in non-military aid and
is spending $ 2.2m more this financial year.
Our civilian training programme, under
which more than 300 Vietnamese have
come to Australia, will continue. We are
assisting in other major projects in Vietnam, including water supply and technical aid for
schools. Our three surgical teams continue
to do splendid work. None of this could be
permanent if the military shield were not
wide and strong, and the wider and
stronger it is, the better the progress of the
military campaign and the civil programmes
will be.
To that end, therefore-with increasing
progress in mind-the Republic of Vietnam
and its allies have been conferring on what
the situation may require. Each government,
with the benefit of the discussions
which have taken place, will make its individual
decision. Already some of us have
decided to commit additional forces at this
time so that effort may be increased and
so that the military initiative that has been
won can be sustained and the pace of
political, economic and other development
quickened. The United States has already
announced that it will add some 45,000
men-nineteen battalions-to the total of
460,000 it has deployed in Vietnam. Today
the New Zealand Prime Minister has
announced on behalf of his Government
New Zealand's increase-in the form of an
additional infantry company. Other allied
governments are corsidering what more
they can do. For their part the South
Vietnamese are to increase their forces by
some 60,000 men.
The Australian Government has therefore
decided, after consultation with our
allies, to increase the Australian forces in
Vietnam, and I now set out for the information
of the House how this will be done.
An additional battalion group with helicopter
support will be provided from Australia
for the Task Force. This third
battalion group, which will be made available
in November/ December, will have the
effect of almost doubling the offensive capability
of the force and adding considerably
to its operational effectiveness. A tank
squadron-about 250 men of all rankswill
be made available. With their mobility
and powerful sustained fire power, our
medium Centurion tanks will provide better
support and protection for the force. Additional
helicopters with crews and servicing
personnel will be added to the Iroquois
squadron to provide the Task Force with
more tactical mobility. A small number of
Skyhawk pilots and a maintenance element
will be made available on loan for operational
service with the United States Marines
in South Vietnam. An additional engineer
construction unit will be provided to undertake,
for a limited period, specific works
in the Task Force area. The establishments
of headquarters and units will be increased
by some 125 all ranks because of operational
needs in the area.
These additions ill raise the numbers
of the Australian force in Vietnam from
6,300 to over 8,000 men, and will make
them much more effective as a balanced
force. The Government has been able to
do this because of the steady expansion in
-the defence forces over the last few years
by increased recruiting and by national service.
Australia has now the most powerful
and effective defence forces it has ever had
short of war-time mobilisation. The
Government is able to undertake these additional
commitments in Vietnam without
detracting from the strength and readiness
of the forces deployed elsewhere in South
East Asia. Our forces already in Vietnam
have acquitted themselves superbly well. We
have units from all three Services in the
theatre and they have earned the highest
praise from our United States, South Vietnamese
and other allies.
In Phuoc Tuy province, for instance,
which has been a Vietcong stronghold for
many years, the Australian Task Force has
been confronted with a highly mobile
infantry force, well trained and equipped with good quality weapons. Since our forces
were deployed in this area in June 1966,
they have established a high degree of
security in the province, and have opened
up strategic communication routes. Altogether
this force has been in over sixty
major operations since June 1966. In addition,
our air and naval units have played
a very useful role in support of overall
allied operations.
I believe that those who have served,
and are serving, including their parents and
families, are keenly aware of the issues at
stake in Vietnam and know that Australia
has ' to be there', with the same high
courage, as Australia has been in other and
wider wars, in the cause of freedom.
The young national servicemen, who
have responded magnificently to the grave
tasks that have fallen to them, have identified
themselves so completely with our
regular soldiers that there is no discernible
difference. They have clearly shown their
recognition that they are performing a
national duty. They are Australian soldiers,
and I am sure they would not have it otherwise.
I am sure, too, that this House will be
ready to pay all our fighting men, regulars
and national servicemen alike-the soldiers,
sailors and airmen of Australia, serving in
Vietnam-the honour that is their due, and
that this House will support the additional
contribution to their strength -that I have
now announced on behalf of the Government.
BY AUTHORITY: A. J. ARTHUR, COMMONWEALTH GOVERNMENT PRINTER, CANBERRA, A. C. T.