From Vietnam to East Timor, 1972–99

The ‘lean years’ for the Army, from 1972 to 1999, were in one sense an aberration for an army that had forces deployed on operations for most of the time since the onset of the Korean War in 1950. These years following the withdrawal from Vietnam were to witness considerable shrinkage in the size of the force as well as major reorganisations and considerable consolidation. Much of the Army's efforts were focused on keeping the force relevant during a period when there was little apparent threat and when the Navy and the Air Force seemed to many to be the more sensible components on which the Australian Government should focus its limited defence resources. It is also a story of a period in the Army's history that is little understood.

The strategic focus during this period moved away from the notion of ‘forward defence’ to a strategy that emphasised defence of the continent itself, yet the Army was involved in a surprising amount of other activity that went largely unnoticed outside the Army. While the Army sought to adjust to changed strategic and budgetary circumstances, a range of opportunities presented themselves to continue to maintain an operational footing. In the last years of the Cold War, from 1972 to 1989, such opportunities were relatively few and far between. But as the Cold War came to an end, from 1989 onwards, many of the restraints on conflicts and international responses melted away. As a result, the Army’s operational tempo surged considerably with a range of deployments abroad throughout the 1990s. The chapters of part 1 attempt to shed some light on that story.