Australia in Cambodia not Vietnam.

WI Australia sent its OTL forces to defend Cambodia rather than South Vietnam?

Just to make it clear we had a 3 btn brigade group with a tank sqn, SAS troop, RAAF helicopter sqn, Canberra sqn, Caribou sqn and a destroyer. To that you might add a fighter sqn from Thailand and other warships from the FESR, perhaps even a carrier.

This would be up against maybe 40,000 NVA infiltrators and a highly dveloped supply line.
 
This is good question and one that I have thought about myself.

The POD would require the Australian Government to change their view point significantly. As you are aware one of the key reasons that Phuoc Tuy province was chosen is that in the event of the disintegration of the Vietnamese state the Australian forces could be easily withdrawn.

If the Australians are committed to Cambodia at the same time as in OTL, then it will necessitate a deployment to the North East province on the border with South Vietnam and Laos. I suppose you could always have an incremental increase Australia deploys the AATC into the field, and it requires a quick response team in the event of a serious engagement.

But in order to achieve the POD would be roughly mid 1950's to change Prince Sihanouk's mind set in regards to the West. Possible thoughts would be the South Vietnamese bomb successfully assasinates him in 1959 or with the death of President John F Kennedy in 1963 he reorientates his political direction or the situation in Laos decreases faster.

My point would be that depending on when Australia intervenes in Cambodia, will determine the size of the NVA force that they face. The sea route by Sihanoukville may be discounted if they intervene early enough for instance.

Happy to discuss further.
 
Could Australia deploy a task force to Cambodia and Cambodia remain neutral? Or would the attempt to defend Cambodia from NVA infiltration bring Cambodia into the war?
 
Yes Australia could deploy a task force and Cambodia could remain neutral *thinks to self - I could write a time line about this.* Australia was viewed favourably by Cambodia at the time, for instance after President Kennedy's funeral the American government used an Australian intemediary to talk to PM Sihanouk.

Perhaps domestically it may be easier as well, because we would be differentiated away from the Americans in Vietnam, and we were invited. A competent foreign minister could create parallels between Malaya and Cambodia.

Cambodia could retain the facade of neutrality, but for all intents and purposes they would be forced to cooperate with the governments of Thailand and South Vietnam to remove the North Vietnamese presence. For an example of how this would work we could look at the last few years under PM Sihanouk in the late 1960's. Providing the provision of 'hot pursuit' etc, however this may have also reflected that he was unable to stop that pursuit anyway.

If you wanted this to occur you would need to have Sisowath Monrieth take over the defence portfolio, a position that he always wanted. Have Lon Nol pushed to the sidelines and we might have some better decision makers at the top. I have a list that I considered for my now defunct Angkor Resurgent timeline if interested.
 
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