The Hippies were very open about their opinion on the Vietnam War and it was the beginning of the phrase, ‘make love not war’. Although America was the first western country to aide South Vietnam, many other countries, including Australia, played huge parts in the war against North Vietnam. Australian hippies, although against the war from the start, became outraged when young Australian men were conscripted, (in other words forced), to serve against North Vietnam. Many Australians were divided on the issue of conscription and many Australians (and Hippies) believed that Australia shouldn’t be involved in the war at all. Many organisations were formed to help return the men who were fighting in Vietnam back home to Australia. Some of these include; SOS (Save Our Sons). Also, during the Vietnam War, 150 000 Brisbane citizens participated in a national protest to ‘stop work to stop the war’.
(Google 2008. Google image Search, viewed October 2008.
http://www.google.com/imghp)
In all, about 50, 000 Australian troops served in Vietnam from 1962, with 520 dead and close to 2400 wounded. Australia redrew its troops in 1975 and by that time, most Australians were against the war, and some protests had become violent.
The Moratoriums were large protests that took place for the first time in Australia. These were led by many types of people, but mainly university students. The Anti-Vietnam War protestors held the first moratorium marches in Australia in May 1970. Approximately 120 000 people throughout Australia were involved with this protest.
