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
Ngo Dinh Diem presidential visit to Australia in the midst of the Cold War. He refused to hold the national elections and asserted that Ho Chi Minh would rig the ballots in the north, although he had done so himself in deposing Bảo Đại. Diem arrived in the capital Canberra on 2 September 1957; his visit was the first by a foreign incumbent head of state to Australia. He had visited the US in May, and the visit to Australia was the second of three legs in a tour of anti-communist countries in the Asia Pacific region; Diem had visited Thailand in August and went on to