A Harvest of Fear is a history of Australia's experience of the Vietnam War. Although it provides an insight into the kind of war the Australians found themselves fighting in Phuoc Tuy, this book is not a blow-by-blow account of battles and strategy. Instead, it aims to offer an understanding of how that war came about, how Australia came to be involved, and why Australian involvement was the cause of such division at home. Murphy explains the Australian intervention as the harvest of its fears about Asia and Communism, and of misunderstandings formed in a Cold War climate. This book draws together the story of Phuoc Tuy province in colonial and post-colonial times; Cold War politics and diplomacy in Australia; and the development and impact of a strident Australian anti-war movement.
| Acknowledgments | ||
| Abbreviations | ||
| Author's note | ||
| Illustrations | ||
| Introduction | ||
| 1 | Material life in the colonial world | 3 |
| 2 | A colonial polity | 23 |
| 3 | 'A trance of uncertainty, doubt and fear': Australia and Asia in the Cold War | 39 |
| 4 | 1954: To the brink | 61 |
| 5 | Ngo Dinh Diem: 'How to revive a war', 1954-1966 | 81 |
| 6 | The logic of intervention: 1957-1964 | 99 |
| 7 | The logics of dissent: 1957-1966 | 121 |
| 8 | 1966: The Cold War mould cracks | 140 |
| 9 | Counter-revolution and the village: 1966-1969 | 165 |
| 10 | Rice, place and revolution | 181 |
| 11 | Morbid symptoms: Australia, 1967-1969 | 197 |
| 12 | The left revived | 219 |
| 13 | The Moratorium | 241 |
| 14 | Things fall apart | 259 |
| Conclusion | 274 | |
| Appendix: Opinion polls on the war and conscription | 279 | |
| Notes | 281 | |
| Bibliography and sources | 309 | |
| Index | 325 |
Overview
A Harvest of Fear is a history of Australia's experience of the Vietnam War. Although it provides an insight into the kind of war the Australians found themselves fighting in Phuoc Tuy, this book is not a blow-by-blow account of battles and strategy. Instead, it aims to offer an understanding of how that war came about, how Australia came to be involved, and why Australian involvement was the cause of such division at home. Murphy explains the Australian intervention as the harvest of its fears about Asia and ...