Alleged CIA involvement in the Whitlam dismissal

CIA involvement in the Whitlam dismissal is an allegation that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was involved in the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis, which culminated in the dismissal of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam.

The theory claims that the CIA bribed or unduly influenced Governor-General John Kerr to dismiss Whitlam, due to alleged U.S. government dissatisfaction with Whitlam's policies. Kerr denied any CIA involvement and Whitlam said Kerr did not need any encouragement from the CIA to sack him.

Background

There were a number of points of tension between Whitlam's government and the United States intelligence apparatus. Whitlam had close ties with the United States, in 1964 receiving a "Leader" travel grant from the U.S. Department of State to spend three months studying under U.S. government and military officials.[1]

After coming to power, Whitlam quickly removed the last Australian troops from Vietnam.[2] Whitlam government ministers criticised the US bombing of North Vietnam at the end of 1972. The US complained diplomatically about the criticism.[3][4] In March 1973, US secretary of State William Rogers told Richard Nixon that "the leftists [within the Labor Party would] try to throw overboard all military alliances and eject our highly classified US defence space installations from Australia".[3]

In 1973, Whitlam ordered the Australian security organisation ASIS to close its operation in Chile, where it was working as a proxy for the CIA in opposition to Chile's president Salvador Allende.[3]

Whitlam's Attorney-General Lionel Murphy used the Australian Federal Police to conduct a raid on the headquarters of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) in March 1973. CIA Chief of Counter-Intelligence, James Angleton, later said Murphy had "barged in and tried to destroy the delicate mechanism of internal security".[4] Australian journalist Brian Toohey said that Angleton considered then Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam a "serious threat" to the US and was concerned after the 1973 raid on ASIO headquarters. In 1974, Angleton sought to instigate the removal of Whitlam from office by having CIA station chief in Canberra, John Walker, ask the director general of ASIO, Peter Barbour, to make a declaration that Whitlam had lied to the Parliament about the raid. Barbour considered the statement to be false and refused to make it.[5]

In 1974, Whitlam ordered the head of ASIO, Peter Barbour, to sever all ties with the CIA. Barbour ignored Whitlam's order and contact between Australian and US security agencies was driven underground. Whitlam later established a royal commission into intelligence and security.[2]

Jim Cairns became Deputy Prime Minister after the 1974 election. He was viewed by US secretary of state Henry Kissinger and defence secretary James Schlesinger as "a radical with strong anti-American and pro-Chinese sympathies". The US administration was concerned that he would have access to classified United States intelligence.[2]

Whitlam instantly dismissed ASIS chief WT Robinson in 1975 after discovering ASIS had assisted the Timorese Democratic Union in an attempted coup against the Portuguese administration in Timor, without informing Whitlam's government.[4]

Whitlam threatened to reveal the identities of CIA agents working in Australia. He also threatened not to renew the lease of the US spy base at Pine Gap, which was due to expire on 10 December 1975.[6] The US was also concerned about Whitlam's intentions towards its spy base at Nurrungar.[3]

Allegations of CIA involvement

Prior to the Dismissal, Kerr requested and received a briefing from senior defence officials on a CIA threat to end intelligence co-operation with Australia.[7] During the crisis, Whitlam alleged that Country Party leader Doug Anthony had close links to the CIA.[8] In early November 1975, the Australian Financial Review wrote that Richard Lee Stallings, a former CIA officer, had been channelling money to Anthony, who was a close friend.[9] Later it was alleged that Kerr had acted for the United States government in dismissing Whitlam. The most common allegation is that the CIA influenced Kerr's decision.[10] In 1966 Kerr had joined the Congress for Cultural Freedom, a conservative group that had secretly received CIA funding. Christopher Boyce, who was convicted of spying for the Soviet Union, said that the CIA wanted Whitlam removed because he threatened to close US military bases in Australia, including the CIA's own Pine Gap spy station near Alice Springs.[11] Boyce was a 22-year-old employee of a US defence industry contractor at the time of the Dismissal. He claimed that Kerr was described by the CIA as "our man Kerr".[12] Victor Marchetti, a CIA officer turned critic of the US intelligence community[13] who had helped set up the Pine Gap facility, said that the threatened closure of US bases in Australia "caused apoplexy in the White House, [and] a kind of Chile [coup] was set in motion", with the CIA and MI6 working together to get rid of the Prime Minister.[14][15] Jonathan Kwitny wrote in his book The Crimes of Patriots that the CIA "paid for Kerr's travel, built his prestige ... Kerr continued to go to the CIA for money". In 1974, the White House sent as ambassador to Australia Marshall Green, who was known as "the coupmaster" for his central role in the 1965 coup against Indonesian President Sukarno.[11]

Subsequent evaluation

Supportive of the allegations

In 1977, United States Deputy Secretary of State Warren Christopher made a special trip to Sydney to meet with Whitlam and told him, on behalf of US President Jimmy Carter, of his willingness to work with whatever government Australians elected, and that the US would never again interfere with Australia's democratic processes.[16] The use of the word "again" has been interpreted by some as evidence that the US encouraged, or actively intervened, in Whitlam's dismissal. Richard Butler, who was present at the meeting as Whitlam’s principal private secretary, believed at the time, and remained convinced, that Christopher's wording was an admission that the US had intervened in Whitlam's dismissal.[3]

Several journalists, historians and political commentators have endorsed the theory that the CIA was involved in Whitlam's dismissal, including Jordan Shanks,[17] John Pilger,[11] William Blum[18] and Jonathan Kwitny.

Critical of the allegations

Kerr denied being involved in the CIA and there is no evidence for it in his private writings.[19] Confidential correspondence between Kerr and the Queen's Private Secretary, Sir Martin Charteris, released in July 2020 indicates that Kerr said that his alleged involvement with the CIA was "nonsense" and that he consistently reaffirmed his "continued loyalty" to the Crown.[20] Whitlam himself later wrote that Kerr, "fascinated as he had long been with intelligence matters", did not need any encouragement from the CIA.[21][19]

Edward Woodward, who was ASIO chief from 1976 and 1981, dismissed the notion of CIA involvement.[22]

Justice Robert Hope, who had twice been royal commissioner investigating the Australian intelligence agencies, said in 1998 that he had attempted to locate and interview a witness who had allegedly given in-camera evidence to the Church Committee about CIA involvement in the Dismissal, but had been unable to find either the witness or testimony.[23]

In 2015, Australian diplomatic and military historian Peter Edwards dismissed the claim that Kerr’s action was instigated by US and UK intelligence agencies, which he called an "enduring conspiracy theory".[24]

See also

References
  1. "U.S. Federal Study Sought By Whitlam". The Canberra Times. 13 August 1964.
  2. Daley, Paul (15 October 2015). "Asio chief defied Gough Whitlam's order to cut ties with the CIA in 1974". the Guardian. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  3. Suich, Max (30 October 2014). "Whitlam death revives doubts of US role in his sacking". Australian Financial Review. Retrieved 29 December 2022.
  4. Rainford, John (6 September 2016). "The CIA and Whitlam's dismissal". Green Left. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  5. Snow, Deborah (31 August 2019). "Tantalising secrets of Australia's intelligence world revealed". The Age. Retrieved 1 October 2019.
  6. Rundle, Guy (25 November 2015). "Rundle: proving the CIA-backed conspiracy that brought down Whitlam". Crikey. Retrieved 1 January 2023.
  7. Clark, Andrew (11 November 2015). "Malcolm Fraser burnt insider's memo that could have stopped the Dismissal". Australian Financial Review.
  8. Butterfield, Fox (6 November 1975), "C.I.A. issue enters Australian crisis", The New York Times, archived from the original on 3 November 2012, retrieved 11 June 2010 (fee for article)
  9. Blum 2014, p. 246.
  10. Blum, William (1998), Killing Hope – U.S. Military and CIA interventions since World War II, Black Rose Books, ISBN 978-1-55164-096-9, archived from the original on 10 June 2016, retrieved 6 June 2010
  11. Pilger, John (23 October 2014). "The British-American coup that ended Australian independence". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  12. Martin, Ray (23 May 1982), A Spy's Story: USA Traitor Gaoled for 40 Years After Selling Codes of Rylite and Argus Projects. (60 Minutes transcript), williambowles.info, archived from the original on 1 May 2009, retrieved 24 September 2006
  13. Doig, Stephen K. "Ex-CIA agent admits he used JFK 'rumors.'" Miami Herald (February 2, 1985), p. 2B. Archived by the Central Intelligence Agency and Newspapers.com.
  14. Pilger, John (2014-10-23). "The British-American coup that ended Australian independence". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 27 September 2022. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  15. Zhou, Naaman (2020-07-14). "Gough Whitlam dismissal: What we know so far about the palace letters and Australian PM's sacking". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 18 September 2022. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
  16. Whitlam 1997, pp. 49–50.
  17. Why America is Dead to Me, retrieved 2023-08-08
  18. Blum, William (1995). Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II (1st ed.). Common Courage Press. pp. 244–249. ISBN 1-56751-253-4.
  19. Whitlam dismissal: Queen, CIA played no role in 1975, Paul Kelly and Troy Bramston, The Australian, 26 December 2015
  20. "'Don't ever write and preach to me again': One missive in the Palace letters broke all the rules". www.abc.net.au. 18 July 2020. Archived from the original on 21 July 2020. Retrieved 27 July 2020.
  21. Steketee, Mark (1 January 2008), "Carter denied CIA meddling", The Australian, archived from the original on 10 October 2010, retrieved 19 May 2010
  22. Terrorist threat heightened, former spy boss says, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 7.30 Report, 11 October 2005. Accessed 23 July 2009. Archived 25 July 2009.
  23. Hope, Robert (10 July 1998). "Robert Marsden Hope interviewed by John Farquharson in the Law in Australian society oral history project [sound recording]". Trove (National Library of Australia). Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  24. Edwards, Peter (22 December 2015). "Arthur Tange, the CIA and the Dismissal". The Strategist. Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Archived from the original on 20 June 2020. Retrieved 14 July 2020.

Bibliography

Works cited
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