Australia and Britain - Essay Example

gone to war in the Middle East and the then Australian Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, sent his troops to help them in the war, considering themselves still part of the British empire (Behiels, Stuart & Organization for the History of Canada, 2010). Later on in the 1942 war, the Prime Minister at the time, Curtin, decided to pull his troops out of the war to come back to their country and help assist them fight against the Japanese (Clancy, 2004). This war was against the British decision who wanted to send the Australian troops elsewhere to Burma to continue helping them with their fight.

This decision apparently angered the British, who were also not willing and not in a better position to assist them. They then turned to the United States to help them fight this war against Japan, who had made great steps in their intentions to conquer the pacific (Clancy, 2004). America, on the other hand, came in handy and was more than willing to assist because apparently they too had been brought into this war by the Japanese action to attack Pearl Harbor. They felt the need to get back at them through this war.

The Australian troops were weakened at a time, and America supplied them with most of the arms they required and with their help were able to win the war (Mackerras, 1996). There is a huge political debate as to whether the Australian authorities should continue being in support of the Americas foreign policies with the opposition parties coming out strongly to criticize these ties and relations (Clancy, 2004). This debate has been more of an indication of an increasing shift to the practice of being aligned to the West on almost all of its external affairs (Behiels, Stuart & Organization for the History of Canada, 2010).

Some Australian scholars have also argued that   the British and then the United States have hindered Australians from rediscovering itself and driving their own agenda despite the fact that they attained their independence in 1901. This argument