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 saw extensive action during the Vietnam War, and over 600 were deployed with US Forces. Ground forces also had access to B-52 and F-4 Phantom II and others to launch napalm, white phosphorus, tear gas and chemical weapons, precision-guided munition and cluster bombs. The Vietnam War was the first conflict where U.S. forces had secure voice communication equipment available at the tactical level. The National Security Agency ran a crash program to provide U.S. forces with a family of security equipment, code named NESTOR, fielding 17,000 units initially; eventually 30,000 units were produced. However, limitations of the units, including poor