Long Tan: Australia's War in Vietnam

The Battle of Long Tan is one of the most important episodes in Australian military history, and a significant moment in the Vietnam War. The gallant, almost unbelievable, tale of a single rifle company, holding off and defeating an entire Viet Cong main force regiment, a formation that outnumbered it by as much as 20 to 1, is one that will live forever as one of the most outstanding martial feats ever achieved by the Australian military. But how can this monumental victory be explained? Why was the Australian army able to do the impossible and not only survive the battle, but win it? Furthermore, why did this battle even happen? Why was Australia even involved in the Vietnam War, and how did its forces find itself in the Long Tan rubber plantation on the 18th of August 1966?

This video aims to answer these questions by using the Battle of Long Tan as a lens through which to understand Australia’s military involvement in the Vietnam War as a whole. Through a thorough discussion of the strategic background; the structural, doctrinal and formational development of the Australian army in the post-war period; the problems with integration within the American military and, finally, a critical examination of the battle itself, these more fundamental questions are thoroughly explored. But most importantly, by understanding these deeper themes, the heroic gallantry of D Company, 6 Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment is made even more luminant.

0:00 Strategic Background: The Containment Strategy and Communist Insurgency
12:29 The Australian Army Training Team Vietnam
26:17 Forward Defence: Professionalisation, Conscription and Escalation
39:50 Doctrinal Divergence: 1RAR and the 173rd Airborne Brigade
56:48 An Independent Australian Command in Vietnam
1:16:19 Phuoc Tuy Province: A Communist Stronghold
1:30:12 Establishing the 1ATF Base at Nui Dat
1:45:40 The Beak Out from Nui Dat
2:10:16 The Battle of Long Tan Begins
2:32:44 The Immolation of 11 Platoon
2:52:15 D Company’s Fight for Survival
3:04:11 The Australian Counterattack
3:24:32 Aftermath
3:39:59 Understanding an Unlikely Victory: Battle Analysis and Historiography