SPECIAL FILM REVIEW Danger Close: Australia’s fiercest battle of the Vietnam War
The Battle of Long Tan, a battle fought in August 1966, was the most telling single engagement involving Australian units during the entire Vietnam War. For the North Vietnamese regime, the decision by the Australian government to commit ground forces to assist in defending South Vietnam from invasion in early 1966 required a military response. The Hanoi regime ordered two of its battle-hardened units operating secretly in South Vietnam to inflict a military defeat on the Australian forces that would force a political decision to withdraw from the war. So it was that just two months after Australian forces took…