Overview

This study examines 324 oral history transcripts and explains the recruitment, training, and deployment of US diplomats. Amid growing feminist hostility to Foreign Service treatment of spouses, some couples resented postings to distant Australasia but most enjoyed a welcoming English-speaking environment. While New Zealand assignments involved complex negotiations with Pacific islanders, diplomats in Australia were powerless to control the geopolitics of the Indian Ocean, including the fortification of Diego Garcia and peace negotiations threatening US Navy access to the port of Fremantle. When the Australian Labor Party won power in 1972 the vulnerability of vital military and intelligence facilities alarmed the US more than opposition to nuclear ship visits that removed New Zealand from the ANZUS alliance in the 1980s. Notable exceptions to a principal focus on diplomats below the highest ranks are Marshall and Lisa Green. After meeting John Stewart Service in post-1945 New Zealand they remained for years his loyal defenders against the assaults of McCarthyism. Lisa's interview implicitly but decisively refutes allegations that, as US ambassador to Australia, Marshall plotted the dismissal of the Whitlam government in 1975. Despite persistent rumors of a CIA coup, declassified cables reveal resident US diplomats' hostility to the governor general's unprecedented action.

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9781498591799

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Reviews

Making extensive use of previously-ignored oral histories, Anthony Barker has written a perceptive and fascinating account of the attitudes and experiences of American diplomats and their spouses in Australia. Probing beyond the formal, elite processes of foreign policy decision-making, Barker uses personal histories to cast new light on diplomatic and political history. Written in an engaging and accessible style, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in the United States-Australian relationship.--Chris Dixon, Macquarie University

Making extensive use of previously-ignored oral histories, Anthony Barker has written a perceptive and fascinating account of the attitudes and experiences of American diplomats and their spouses in Australia. Probing beyond the formal, elite processes of foreign policy decision-making, Barker uses personal histories to cast new light on diplomatic and political history. Written in an engaging and accessible style, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in the United States-Australian relationship.--Chris Dixon, Macquarie University Give us the gift of seeing ourselves as others see us--a very important intelligence task, and Anthony J. Barker does us a service in trawling the oral and private written assessments of American diplomats in Australia. Barker explores the shifting power relations between Australia and the United States, demonstrating how Australia was very much an unequal ally in the 1930s and 1940s but became more important to the United States in the 1960s with the introduction of joint facilities. Barker has made an important contribution to debates about this diplomatic relationship, and his insights will be useful to scholars and politicians alike.--Kim Beazley, Governor of Western Australia, served as Ambassador of Australia to the United States from 2010 to 2016

Author Information

Anthony J. Barker is senior honorary research fellow at the University of Western Australia.

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