DATELINE AUSTRALIA: AMERICA'S FOREIGN WATERGATE?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00806R000200820016-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 3, 2010
• Sequence Number: 16
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/03: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200820016-2
ARTICLE APPEARED
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FOREIGN POLICY
WINTER 1982-83
DATELINE AUSTRALIA:
AMERICA'S FOREIGN
WATERGATE?
hr..James .9. 'abort
GG
ho lost Australia- may soon be a signif-
icant debate in American politics. All over the
democratic v;-orld opposition parties are gain-
ing power. Should this happen in Australia,
the alliance with America might be called into
question and \k'ashington could lose intelli-
gence facilities indispensable for any future
arms control regime.
Today, from press and Parliament, Australia
is awash with accusations about illegitimate
American intelligence activity. Much attention
and anger is focused on the Central Intelligence
Agency. There is an almost hysterical set of
indictments leveled against U.S. intelligence.
The Ci. is charged with becoming involved
in Australian politics and foreign relations.
even manipulating the Australian banking sys-
tem and. most astonishingly, organizing a nar-
cotics trade from Australian soil.
Intelligent American observers' initial dis-
belief needs reassessing. For in Australia a
plausible case is being developed that CIA of-
ficials may have also done in Australia what
they managed to achieve in Iran. Guatemala.
and Chile: destroy an elected government-in
the case of Australia. the Labor party govern-
ment from 1972 to 1975.
The fall of Prime Minister Gough \Vhitlam
and the appointment of current Prime Minister
Malcolm Fraser met with profound relief
among U.S. Officials. \Vhitlam, perhaps the
best orator in contemporary Australian his-
tory, aroused deep hostility within the U.S.
intelligence community. It viewed his part'
and politics as. at best, benighted accomplices
to Soviet undertakings. The CIA feared that
secrets shared with- Australia were being
routinely compromised, that CIA activities and
agents in Australia would soon be revealed.
and that the U.S. government's critical and
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irreplaceable electru
Australia. vital for
activities. could be lc
During the \Vhitla
United States were c
trust. The CIA was
as ar, associate. and
would be involved i
nations. Relations i
a more conservative
tralian capital. Can
Ligation into the 19
based. American-o
chant Bank has re\
the controversies of
tralian suspicions
preposterous in 19'
river of evidence. Th
warrant to a water-c
noids have enemies.
Geography and geology have conspired in
directing Australia's destiny. Australia has
bountiful mineral endowments and a small
population-to-area ratio with a total population
of 15 million. It is one of the most strategically
valuable pieces of real estate on the planet. Aus-
tralia sits at the southeast corner of the Indian
Ocean about 2,400 miles southeast of Indo-
nesia. Sixty-nine per cent of Japan's oil require-
ments.'0-80 per cent of Western Europe's, and
15 per cent of America's passes through the
area between Australia and southern Africa.
C.S. B-52s flying from Guam to Diego Garcia
refuel in northern Australia at a base in Dar-
win. Australia hosts 10 American military in-
stallations. Because of their unique location.
most cannot be replicated at any cost. The new
U.S. Defense Guidance characterizes Australia
as a critical area.
Australia has traditionally been friendly to-
ward the United States. Tens of thousands of
U.S. sailors each year are delighted to find that
the computerized date-a-sailor services offered
at ever- Australian port are overburdened with
amicable Australian applicants. But things are
changing. No longer do prime ministers claim,
as John Gorton did in 1969, "Wherever the
United States is resisting .aggression . . . we
will go a-waltzing Matilda with you." Evidence
of a new atmosphere was the roasting Vice
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/03: CIA-RDP90-00806R000200820016-2