The Many Flags campaign was an initiative by United States President Lyndon Johnson to get US allies in Asia and the Pacific to participate in the Vietnam War in support of South Vietnam. While it served a military purpose, the program was also a propaganda effort by Johnson to enlist Free World forces in the Cold War against communism. The US supported the Allied forces through direct monetary aid, military contracts, logistic aid, and various forms of economic compensation.
Allied countries
Under this program, five countries contributed troops – Thailand, Australia, New Zealand, Republic of Korea (ROK), and the Philippines. ANZUS Pact allies Australia and New Zealand contributed several thousand men (61,000 and 3,890, respectively), but they agreed only to a limited support role.
South Korean President Park Chung Hee agreed to contribute troops in return for US support in the Korean War as well as US aid money for his modernization program. The ROK was by far the largest contributor to the Many Flags commitment and its contingent peaked at about 50,000 at one time. Over several years, some 300,000 Korean infantry and marines served in South Vietnam. Thailand contributed more than 12,000 troops, of which 351 were killed in action in Vietnam.
In addition, 38 nations sent further aid and assistance to the South Vietnamese government in Saigon.