Word: whitlam
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...write as the former Governor-General of Australia who in November 1975 terminated the commission of Gough Whitlam as Prime Minister of Australia and thereby dismissed his government. You discussed that event in your issue of Dec. 13. Your article stated that since the dismissal, allegations have surfaced that "the CIA had a hand in Whitlam's fall." You referred to a recent piece in Foreign Policy magazine in which a Professor James A. Nathan stated that "a plausible case is being developed that CIA officials may have also done in Australia what they managed to achieve in Iran...
...Australian relations [Dec. 13]. However, TIME'S insinuation that I draw upon whispers and rumors (and only left-wing ones at that) rather than normal scholarly sources is unfair. The question of U.S. improprieties in Australian politics was raised not by me but by former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and by highly placed Labor Party officials. The case substantiating CIA involvement in the downfall of the Whitlam government can be found in books, police reports, TV documentaries and hundreds of newspapers ranging across the political spectrum. This evidence strongly suggests that the CIA was not a passive witness...
Nathan's premise is that "a plausible case is being developed that CIA officials may have also done in Australia what they managed to achieve in Iran, Guatemala and Chile: destroy an elected government." Nathan recounts the rise of Whitlam, from his 1972 victory to the distrust that quickly developed between Washington and Canberra. Whitlam gave the U.S. State Department good reason to be nervous: his government recognized North Viet Nam and North Korea, removed a ban on the sale of strategic materials to the Soviet Union, and sent its Deputy Prime Minister on a tour of North Viet...
...Whitlam government had so badly mishandled the economy that Opposition Leader Fraser succeeded in blocking passage of a budget bill in the Australian Senate. With the government about to run out of money, Kerr called Whitlam to his office on Nov. 11. As the duly appointed representative of the Queen of England, Kerr took the unprecedented but legal step of firing Whitlam...
Nathan offers other motives for Kerr's action. The lease for the base at Pine Gap was scheduled to expire on Dec. 10, Nathan says, and Whitlam had hinted that he might not renew the lease agreement with the U.S. In response, the CIA sent the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) a blistering cable. It said, in substance, that the U.S. agency might be forced to cut its ties to ASIO. The next day Kerr sacked Whitlam. Nathan notes that Kerr, an Australian-born lawyer, had been active in cultural front organizations funded...