at, what the US wanted from Australia was put in a bit more subtle terms than that. Having closely observed the internal workings of Australia post WW2 they weren't sure just which side of the conflict in Indo-China Australia was going to support. Their request was to ensure that our presence along side them would stop any ambigourous signals being sent. From the US point of view perhaps they knew us better than what we knew ourselves. But then given the access they had to our inner workings via their CIA and our own ASIS, that is entirely understandable.
