May 9, 1962 - Australia announced today that she was prepared to give token military and civilian aid to embattled South Vietnam. The announcement followed an appeal by Secretary of State Dean Rusk for a “helping hand” in Vietnam from other nations of the non-Communist world. Sir Garfield Barwick, Australian External Affairs Minister, said Australian combat troops would not be sent to South Vietnam. “This is not a question of military aid,” Sir Garfield said. “It is to give the South Vietnamese the necessary wherewithal to throw off the aggression that seeks to overthrow them.” Secretary Rusk spoke today at a Federal Government event in his honor in Canberra. He has been attending the two-day meeting there of the Australia-New Zealand-United States Council. In his speech, Secretary Rusk said: “The stakes are greater than South Vietnam itself. The independence of all the people of Southeast Asia is involved. This aggression against Southeast Asia must not be allowed to succeed.”
