Military history of Australia during the Vietnam War combat operations against the communists. Whitlam recognised North Vietnam, which welcomed his electoral success. However, Australian troops remained in Saigon guarding the Australian embassy until 1 July 1973. The withdrawal from Vietnam meant that 1973 was the first time since the beginning of World War II in 1939 that Australia's armed forces were not involved in a conflict somewhere in the world. In total approximately 60,000 Australians—ground troops, air-force and naval personnel—served in Vietnam between 1962 and 1972. 521 died as a result of the war and over 3,000 were wounded. 15,381 conscripted national servicemen served from 1965 to 1972,
Vietnam War gun of the US army at the time and many of them were put on helicopters, to provide suppressive fire. The MAC-10 machine pistol was supplied to many special forces troops in the midpoint of the war. Two aircraft that were prominent in the war were the AC-130 "Spectre" Gunship and the UH-1 "Huey" gunship. The AC-130 was a heavily armed ground-attack aircraft variant of the C-130 Hercules transport plane. The Huey is a military helicopter powered by a single, turboshaft engine, and approximately 7,000 UH-1 aircraft saw service in Vietnam. The U.S. heavily armored, 90 mm M48A3 Patton tank