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,
South Korea in the Vietnam War second half. Corruption did occur in which US-issued weapons were re-directed and sold to Korean ships for re-sale to the Korean government and supplementing the arsenal of Korean forces stationed in Korea, whom were still given M1 Garand rifles instead of the newer-issue M16 rifle given out to ARVN and ROK forces in South Vietnam The withdrawal process had negatively impacted Korean-US relations, despite economic benefits gained, with Nixon and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird considering simultaneous withdrawal from both Korea and Vietnam. Due to Vietnamization US troops begun withdrawing since 1970, which had caused disagreement with the South Korean