Diplomatic history of Australia the democratic world. In a country gripped by this fear, the government's defence policy was dominated by the idea of "forward defence", in which Australia would seek to prevent the Communist "thrust into South-East Asia". The committal of troops to the Vietnam War was viewed as an attempt by the Menzies Government to strengthen the alliance with the USA following Great Britain's withdrawal "east of Suez". With his arrival in October 1966, Lyndon Baines Johnson became the first US President to visit Australia. The visit came in the light of increasing international criticism over the war in Vietnam. The majority
Australia–Chile relations to Australia would increase in the 1970s after the 1973 Chilean coup d'état when several thousand Chileans left the country escaping political persecution. In December 1989, Chile returned to democracy. In 1993, President Patricio Aylwin became the first Chilean head of state to pay an official visit to Australia. In 2004, Prime Minister John Howard became the first Australian head of government to visit Chile and to attend the APEC Summit. Both nations consider each other to be "like-minded" in multilateral forums. In 2015, Australia and Chile marked the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations. High-level visits from Australia to Chile