page_title: John Wilton (general)
section_title: Vietnam
hierarchical_section_title: John Wilton (general) / Post-war career / Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee / Vietnam
caption_attribution_description: English: TROOPS OF 1ST AUSTRALIAN ARMOURED REGIMENT IN FRONT OF AUSTRALIAN CENTURION TANK receive briefing at Vung Tau.
context_page_description: General Sir John Gordon Noel Wilton, KBE, CB, DSO was a senior commander in the Australian Army. He served as Chief of the General Staff, the Army's professional head, from 1963 until 1966, and as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, forerunner of the role of Australia's Chief of the Defence Force, from 1966 until 1970. His eight-year tenure as senior officer of first the Army and then the Australian military spanned almost the entire period of the nation's involvement in the Vietnam War.
  Born in Sydney, Wilton entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1927. Owing to lack of opportunity in the Australian military at the time, he took a commission in the British Army following his graduation in 1930. He spent most of the remainder of the decade with the Royal Artillery in India. Wilton returned to Australia on the eve of World War II and was commissioned into the Royal Australian Artillery. He saw action with the 7th Division in Syria and the 3rd Division in New Guinea, earning a mention in despatches in the former campaign and the Distinguished Service Order in the latter.
context_section_description: Wilton accepted the domino theory and never wavered in his commitment to Vietnam, but as early as mid-1967 he doubted that the war could be won unless the US was prepared to go all out and invade the North. Cautious about expanding Australia's involvement, he advocated deploying a Centurion tank squadron rather than a third infantry battalion when calls came to increase the strength of the task force in Vietnam, but in the end the Federal government announced both commitments in October 1967. Wilton also advised the government to reject any requests from the US command in Vietnam to rotate the Australian task force out of Phuoc Tuy and display its capabilities in a wider operational arena, reasoning that it was more important for the troops to remain in the countryside they knew and continue to build relations with the local people. He nevertheless strongly backed the Australian task force commander, Brigadier Ronald Hughes, when the latter was criticised at home for conducting "American style operations" outside the immediate vicinity of Phuoc Tuy, such as the set-piece battles of Fire Support Bases Coral and Balmoral in mid-1968. Conflict continued to simmer between the Army and the RAAF regarding air support, and Wilton oversaw discussions between Daly and Murdoch that secured a separate Army air organisation, leading to the formation of the Australian Army Aviation Corps in July 1968. On 22 August, the Federal government announced that Wilton would be promoted to general, effective 1 September, in recognition of his "outstanding contribution to the Commonwealth in his present appointment". He was the first Australian officer to attain the rank since Blamey, twenty-seven years before.
  US troop reductions in 1969 under President Richard Nixon's Vietnamization policy led to increasing demands for similar withdrawals of Australian troops.  Wilton, Daly and other senior officers argued that the "balanced" nature of the Australian task force would be damaged by a piecemeal withdrawal and that the only valid form of reduction would be "one out, all out"; the government chose a phased withdrawal, pulling out one battalion in October 1970 and the other two in October and December 1971.  The divisive nature of the war caused conflict within Wilton's own family; all his children actively opposed it, and in September 1969 his son Robert publicly burnt his draft deferment notice outside Parliament House, Canberra, having earlier called upon students at the Australian National University not to register for national service. The Canberra Times ran an article on the Parliament House incident, complete with a photograph of Robert burning his notice. As Australia's senior soldier, Wilton refused to comment on the situation; Robert reported that he and his father respected one another's viewpoints, and relations within the family remained amicable.
  One of the most controversial aspects of Australia's conduct of the Vietnam War had been the employment of a barrier minefield around Phuoc Tuy from 1967 to 1969. Wilton maintained that the minefield was already under construction when he first learned of it, and that he considered the decision within the purview of the commander on the ground, Brigadier Stuart Graham. When confronted with the increasing casualties among Australian troops from mines evidently lifted from the area by the Viet Cong, he pointed out that the South Vietnamese, who had been expected to patrol the minefield, were not playing their part. Wilton further believed that the barrier minefield was an innovative solution to the problems facing the task force and that the commander's decision to implement it was "better than sitting on his backside and not trying anything". He rejected suggestions by critics that the minefield was "the biggest blunder" Australia made in Vietnam, declaring that this was "like being wise after the event".
caption: Centurion tanks of the Australian 1st Armoured Regiment at Vung Tau, South Vietnam, in 1968
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