Of course Australia was only a junior partner and tagged along behind the United States, but Australia had its own aims, ambitions and interests in South-East Asia. In 1964 the Australian government introduced conscription to provide the death lottery; birth dates were balloted to determine who would be called up. In 1965 they sent the first contingent of troops to Vietnam. From 1962 through until 1972 Australian troops were involved in the war in Vietnam. Over 47 000 men and women served there and the decision to commit troops to the conflict was centered on our fear of communism. The invasion of South Vietnam was a communism threat towards democracy and Australias commitment of troops to the United States not only rewarded us with brownie points, but also was a stand against another domino falling to communism as it slowly moved southwards to Australia. The United States is a powerful ally that provides Australia with protection in the case of attack and the war lead to a more secure position for Australia in the world, under the wing of America. There were two main reasons in which Australia supplied troops to serve in the Vietnam War. One was the fact that the outbreak of war in Vietnam was too similar to the fight in 1950 between North and South Korea, a country divided by communism and capitalism. Australia feared the effects of the domino theory, so the decision to send troops to fight in the Vietnam war was not surprising seeing that the takeover of south Vietnam would be a direct military threat towards Australia and there was the fact that Australia wanted to build an even stronger connection between the united states, so that help was readily available when we needed it.