Anti-communism in Australia

The Labor Opposition, Dr. Evatts, opposed the bill because it challenged the rights of Australian citizens and it overturned the rule of “innocent until proven guilty”. The Communist Party Dissolution Act became law in October 1950. The ACP appealed in the High Court and won on the grounds that it was unconstitutional. Menzies then held a referendum to change the constitution so he could pass the Act, but it was defeated.

The anti-communist feeling continued to grow in Australia. Labor appeared as if they could win the 1954 federal election but their hopes were shattered when the Liberals found a communist “spy” Vladimir Petrov, who came from the Soviet Union and allegedly brought evidence of a spy ring. The alleged spy ring made the news for weeks and there was uproar throughout Australia.

The story made even bigger headlines when Petrov was allowed to stay in Australia, but Soviet officials tried to take his wife back to the Soviet Union. They forced her onto a plane, but she accepted asylum by Australian officials when it made a fuel stop in Darwin. Robert Menzies also announced there would be a royal commission investigation into “espionage activities” in Australia. Rumors were circulating about communists in the Labor Party and in the election, Labor lost even though they got the majority of votes.

After the election was over, the Labor Party began to fall apart. Two Labor members were named in the Petrov documents and Evett blamed Menzies for deliberately forging the documents to ruin Labor’s chances in the election. Within the Labor party there were also divisions. There was a group of people who feared the spread of communism, particularly in the trade unions. They formed a group called the Movement, and the Labour party split.

During the internal struggles Australia was dealing with, there were also problems in the rest of the world. At the Geneva Conference in 1954, Vietnam was divided along the 17th parallel, with a reunification referendum being proposed to be held in two years time. The North was led by Ho Chi Minh, who was a nationalist and communist. Ngo Dinh Diem, an anti-communist Catholic led the government in the South.

Australia and the United States were involved in Vietnam as an attempt to stop the Domino effect of communism. They were confused about the difference between communism and nationalism and saw groups in Vietnam being communist, such as VietCong, a National Liberation Fund made up of Communists and Non-Communists wanting a reunified Vietnam. After two years, when the referendum was not held as proposed, the North saw this as deception, and fighting followed.

In 1965, Australia sent a battalion of troops to Vietnam, who arrived in 1966. Over the whole Vietnam War, Australia sent 59,000 troops, of which 520 of them die and almost 3,000 are injured.

During the period 1945 to 1955, Australia tried to prevent the spread of communism in other countries, having a policy of “Forward Defence”. Many countries were divided and this led to hostilities and even in some cases, wars. internal difficulties in Australia was created from the fear of communism and Australia’s perseverance to catch the “Reds under Beds”. The controversy of the Petrov Document and the split of the Labor party also came about because of the fear of communism. Communism works in theory but not in practice. Even so, Australia had no valid reason to fight overseas as they were not in any immediate threat.