Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War was a result of a combined fear of communism and the fall of freedom from danger in Australian democracy and society. The growing web of communism saw the fall of many countries closing in on Australia and New Zealand, and it was believed Robert Menzies’ government that they would find communism at Australia’s shores.
Australians were anti-communist during the Vietnam War; due to a level of hype that the society, the media, and the government were exposed to. The “domino effect” was a popular analogy during the Vietnam War, which represented the spread from communist Russia’s web of power was growing into South East Asia and the halt of communism in Vietnam would signify the half of communism’s …show more content…

This was followed by Australia falling in line with the domino effect, and communism would “sweep down and we would find it on our shores” (Menzies). There was no doubt amongst Australians that communism was a real global threat from the Cold War.
Mr. and Mrs. Petrov were a business couple and Russian spies involved in a Soviet spy ring in Australia. At the close of Menzies’ three-year term of parliament, the Federal government was sitting for its final session and Pm Menzies announced that Soviet diplomat in Canberra, Vladimir Petrov, had been granted political asylum and that a Royal Commission would be established to investigate allegations of the spy ring operation in Australia. This was an effective tool to prevent Labor from winning, and was successful in stirring up more fear of communism amongst Australians, despite seeing public opinion polls indication that voters were more concerned about issues related to the economy rather than communism. The image of Mrs. Petrov being taken away by Soviet spies was printed on the front page newspapers all over the country, creating a reaction from Australians that felt that communism was winning against Australian democracy (see appendix III – photo of Mrs Petrov).
The fear of communism led Australia to drastically attempt to change its very democratic system, create strong military foundations with world superpower America, and cause its society to fall vulnerable to the ever-demeaning domino