Fighting to the Finish: The Australian Army and the Vietnam War 1968–1975
Allen & Unwin, $100 hb, 1139 pp
Fighting to the Finish: The Australian Army and the Vietnam War 1968–1975 by Ashley Ekins, with Ian McNeill
Fighting to the Finish does not get off to a good start; its title is overstated. The First Australian Task Force (1ATF), trimmed down in 1970 from three to two battalions, withdrew from the Vietnam War by December 1971. The small remaining advisory group withdrew in December 1972. Fighting finished in April 1975, when more than 180 battalions of the People’s Army of Vietnam (PAVN) swarmed around Saigon, causing it to fall. It hardly seems sensible to declare that the Australian Army fought to the finish over two years before the end of the war.
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