The Moratorium Movement

The Moratorium Movement

1. Huge rallies, marches and church services began to occur as television brought the horror of Vietnam into Australian homes

2. Appealed to people as a way of displaying their support for the end of the war

3. First Moratorium Day

   • Held in the US
   • Hundreds of thousands of people stopped work in a mass protest
   • Demanded that US government withdraw from Vietnam immediately

4. Demands of the Moratorium Movement

   • Immediate, total and unconditional withdrawal of troops from Indochina
   • Immediate abolition of conscription

5. Moratorium Movement resulted in the election of a Labor government

   • December 1972
   • New Prime Minister was Gough Whitlam
   • Government immediately abolished conscription and withdrew advisors

6. Effects on Australia

   • Ordinary Australians became politically active
   • Soldiers from Vietnam returned home to hostility and found little support or understanding from the public
   • Australians became more suspicious about their government