Australian Journal of Politics and History最新文献

The Red Army Faction's attack on the West-German state in the 1970s and 1980s still poses one of the most controversial issues in post-war German history. Its historical narratives have repeatedly been referred to and re-interpreted in political discourse and popular culture alike. However, this established, indeed canonised, story of German terrorism still looms large over the debates on terrorism in the 21st century. Thus, this article argues that recent terrorist threats from the radical right have been misinterpreted, and there are still common assumptions within German terrorism discourse that keep on evoking the ghosts of the past.

“Professional politicians” have been lamented for their perceived negative impact on representative democracy. However, the concept of “political professionalisation” is deployed inconsistently, making these claims difficult to assess. This article develops a framework to measure professionalisation across two dimensions: career professionalisation (capturing MPs' changing career trajectories) and legislative professionalisation (describing the changing character of parliamentary service). These measures are used to determine whether professionalism increased in the Parliament of Australia between 1950 and 2023. There is strong evidence of career professionalisation from the 1950s to the 2010s in the pre-parliamentary educational and occupational backgrounds of members. However, other measures of career professionalisation are either inconclusive (i.e., prior elected service) or have declined since the late 1980s (average age of MPs) and early 2000s (duration of service). The legislative professionalisation trends are also mixed. A fivefold increase in politically appointed staff clearly indicates professionalisation, while a steady rise in basic remuneration as a proportion of the median wage from the early 1990s demonstrates professionalisation, although this followed a period of de-professionalisation between the early 1950s and late 1980s. Finally, parliamentary service is marked by an increase in the prevalence of professional values. Overall, no decisive trend towards professionalisation is identified.

In 1962, the deployment of the Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV) marked the beginning of Australia's commitment to the Vietnam War. During the first few years of the conflict, Australia's presence increased from 30 to 100 advisors in the AATTV and expanded further with the commitment of a battalion in 1965. On the surface, it appeared as though Australia's security relationship with the United States through the Australia, New Zealand, US security treaty (ANZUS) motivated Canberra's decisions. While ANZUS factored into Australia's decision to join the war in Vietnam, it was not the sole motivation. In the era of the Vietnam War, Australia was undergoing a shift in its strategic outlook that identified and prioritised Australian interests that were distinct from its allies while also pursuing collective defence agreements. Australia's “distinct” interests required consideration of the Asia–Pacific region as a whole, and its military contributions to the Vietnam War signalled one part of that broader strategic outlook in the Asia–Pacific region.

This article examines white Australian veterans' views and memories of Vietnamese people in three stages: during the war, after the Fall of Saigon, and upon return to Vietnam. Drawing on original oral histories with veterans who returned to Vietnam, this article shows that veterans' characterisations of Vietnamese were fundamentally about defining their own self-image as white Australian soldiers. Despite the historic prevalence of anti-Asian racism in Australia, most veterans claimed to have never felt animosity towards any Vietnamese. Yet wartime memories reflect caricatures, drawing on Cold War tropes and Orientalist themes to validate the presence of the Australian Task Force in Vietnam. After the Fall, veterans' memories of Vietnamese in Australia echoed longstanding narratives about legitimacy and worthiness in Australian immigration debates. Upon return to Vietnam, veterans continued to divide Vietnamese along wartime allegiances. They widely reported that all Vietnamese—enemies, allies, and civilians alike—welcomed them back because they loved and respected Australian soldiers during the war. Australian veterans' memories of Vietnamese were thus fundamentally about telling a story about Australian egalitarianism and humanitarianism. In so doing, veterans' memories work to validate the Australian military role in Vietnam and define white Australian national identity in the model of the Anzac legend.