On August 18, 1971 then prime minister William McMahon announced the final withdrawal of Australian combat troops from Vietnam.
It was five years to the day after Australian soldiers fought a battle in a rubber plantation at Long Tan, Phuoc Tuy province South Vietnam.
That battle has become the symbolic Australian event of our 10-year involvement in that war, from the deployment of the Australian Army Training Team in 1962 to the withdrawal of the remaining elements of that unit in February 1973.
In 1971 McMahon simultaneously announced a 4000-person reduction in the Australian Army strength to 40,000.
That reduction was reflected in the...
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