Australasian Propaganda and the Vietnam War: Selling America’s War

The Vietnam War was the first war that Australia and New Zealand fought without British combat involvement, and it signalled a radical realignment of their foreign policies - towards the United States and away from Britain. The propaganda campaign needed to justify this new foreign policy departure was, therefore, particularly important. This volume focuses on the efforts of the Australian and New Zealand Governments to “sell’ the deeply divisive Vietnam War, and their combat involvement in it, to their respective populations. It examines the propaganda campaigns conducted, and assesses the reasons for the successes and failures of those campaigns. It also evaluates the official rhetoric on the war, comparing this to both the private views held by government officials, and the type and amount of information that these officials received from their own sources and those of the U.S. administrations and UK governments. Australasian Propaganda and the Vietnam War examines the impact of this controversial conflict on these countries, and its legacy for Australian and New Zealand foreign policies and the whole region.