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Australia's Security Relationship with the United States

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Calhoun: The NPS Institutional Archive Theses and Dissertations Thesis Collection 1991-12 From alliance to acquaintance: Australia's security relationship with the United States Taylor, Mark J. Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School http://hdl.handle.net/10945/27063 NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL Monterey, California THESIS FROM ALLIANCE TO ACQUAINTANCE i THE AUSTRALIAN - AMERICAN SECURITY RELATIONSHIP by Mark J. Taylor December, 1991 Thesis Advisor: Claude A. Buss Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. T258704 (Unclassified ) SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF THIS PAGE REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE la. REPORT SECURITY CLASSIFICATION lb. RESTRICTIVE MARKINGS UNCLASSIFIED 2a. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION AUTHORITY 3 . DISTRIBUTION/ AVAILABILITY OF REPORT Approved for public release; distribution unlimited 2b. DECIjVSSinCATION/DOWNGRADINGSaiEDULE PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER(S) 5. MONITORING ORGANIZATION REPORT NUMBER(S) 6a. NAME OF PERFORMING ORGANIZATION 6b. OFFICE SYMBOL NAME OF MONITORING ORGANIZATION NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL 38 (If Applicable) 6c. ADDRESS (city, state, and ZIP code) 7b. ADDRESS (city, slate, and ZIP code) Monterey, CA 93943-5100 8 a. NAME OF FUNDING/SPONSORING 8b. OFFICE SYMBOL 9 . PROCUREMENT INSTR UMENT IDENTIFICATION NUMBER ORGANIZATION (If Applicable) 8c. ADDRESS (city, suae, and ZIP code) 10. SOURCE OF FUNDING NUMBERS PROGRAM PROJECT TASK WORK UNIT ELEMENT NO. NO. NO. ACCESSION NO. 1 1 . TITLE (Include Security Classification) FROM ALLIANCE TO ACQUAINTANCE: THE AUSTRALIAN-AMERICAN SECURITY RELATIONSHIP 12. PERSONAL AUTHOR(S) Mark J. Taylor 13a. TYPE OF REPORT 13b. TIME COVERED 14. DATE OF REPORT (year, month.day) 15. PAGE COUNT Master's Thesis JUL 90 TO DEC 91 91 December 19 370 16. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTATION The views expressed in this thesis are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Government of Australia or of the Australian Department of Defence. 17. COSATI CODES 18. SUBJECT TERMS (continue on reverse if necessary and identify by block number) FIELD GROUP SUBGROUP Australia; Colonial Defence; National Defence; Foreign Policy; International Relations; United States; Great Britain; Military Alliances; ANZUS; SEATO Australian History. Southeast Asia; Japan; World War I; World War II. 19. ABSTRACT (Continue on reverse if necessary and identify by block number) This thesis explores the development of Australian concepts of n ational security, in the context of traditional and continuing psychological dependency upon its links of alliance to the West. The Government claims that Australia's policy of defence self- reliance within an alliance framework is a 'conceptual watershed' that has 'liberated' Australian foreign policy; but it is an old theme in defence policy. Australia still awaits a real revolution in its security concepts and sense of regional and world identity. ANZUS, symbol of Australia's ties to the western community, and the false impressions and expectations it creates, now acts more to inhibit than to assist Australia's future growth as a nation. 20. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY OF ABSTRACT 21. ABSTRACT SECURITY CLASSIFICATION (X) UNClj\SSIFIED/UNLIMrrED ( ) SAME AS RPT. ( ) DTK USERS UNCLASSIFIED 22a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE INDIVIDUAL 22b. TELEPHONE (Include Area Code) 22c OFFICE SYMBOL Claude A. Buss 408-646- 2935 NS/BX DD FORM 1473, 84 MAR 83 APR edition may be used until exhausted SECURITY CLASSIHCATION OF THIS PAGE All other editions are obsolete Unclassified Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. From Alliance to Acquaintance: Australia's Security Relationship With The United States by Mark J. Taylor Commander, Royal Australian Navy Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS IN NATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS from the NAVAL POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL December 1991 i i . TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: STILL WAITING FOR THE REVOLUTION 1 I THE AUSTRALIAN-AMERICAN RELATIONSHIP 22 Amae: The Dependency Syndrome 2 5 WHERE IT ALL BEGAN 29 The Search for Security 29 The Colonies: Enterprise and Enervation 3 3 Internal Ideological Conflict 36 Misconstrued Inspiration 40 II EVOLVING SECURITY PERCEPTIONS TO 1918 48 THE COLONIAL ERA 49 Denial By Acquisition 49 Denial by Regulation - Race Patriotism 50 The South Pacific Monroe Doctrine 54 AFTER FEDERATION - PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 58 Cognitive Denial: the Yellow Peril 58 EASTERN MENACE 63 A Glimpse of Salvation 63 A Home Truth From Admiral Sperry 65 THE ROAD TO WAR AND "GLORY" 68 Antipathies and Passionate Attachments 68 Australia • s "Splendid Little War" 70 "Thank God We Have Had An Australian Navy" 72 LOST VICTORY 76 Slave to its Affection 76 Conscription: "One Part Against Another" 79 National-Imperial Schizophrenia 82 iii . T; 6,1 Astray From its Duty or its Interest 84 THE REASON WHY 87 III PARIS TO PEARL HARBOUR 90 HAPLESS RESULT OF A "HAPPY ENCOUNTER" 90 "Honorary Diggers" 90 Mistaken Identity: Australia at War's End 94 "Sympathy For The Favourite Nation" 95 Hughes and Wilson at Versailles 97 Some Unfortunate Precedents 101 The 1921 Imperial Conference 103 The Washington Naval Conference 108 SHARING THE BURDEN OF EMPIRE 113 Trade: A Losing Battle With America 113 Imperial Preferences: "Enmities of Another 115 Imperial Defence: Growing Doubts 120 Australia's Imperial Identity 124 One Last Try For Imperial Defence 128 A DARKENING HORIZON 129 "A Hell of a Way Off" 131 Australia ' s "Melancholy Duty" 133 Regional Weakness 141 IV. CHANGING HORSES: THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC 144 Australia: Desirable But Non-Essential 154 COLD COMFORT FROM UNCLE SAM 156 To The Limits of Mateship 169 The ANZAC Pact 171 Relegation 176 IV • Winding Down 178 Eine Kleine Schmaltzmusik 180 War's End - War's Beginning 190 V. ILLUSORY MATESHIP: 1945 - 1972 194 Frozen Out and Frozen In 195 Salvation II - ANZUS 205 Not Quite All The Way 235 VI. PARTNERSHIP: WHITLAM TO HAWKE 244 THE WHITLAM SHOCKS, 1972-75 244 Postscript: Too Much Too Soon 2 52 "CERTAIN CORRECTIVES" : FRASER, 1976-83 260 THE DROVER'S DOG: HAWKE, 1983-1991 266 "Concerned to do Nothing" 2 69 "Brave Little New Zealand" 272 "After ANZUS - More ANZUS" 278 Discord With Indonesia 284 Straining the Bonds 289 VII. PREPARING FOR THE NEXT CENTURY 294 WHITHER ANZUS? 298 Return of the Prodigal?" 298 "Shoulder to Shoulder" - or Head to Tail? 300 Trade: The "Bad Old Days"? 305 Trade: Divergent Interests 308 The US : Changing Tack 311 FUTURE PROSPECTS 317 A New Cold War? 321 Goodbye To All That 324 AUSTRALIA: CATHARSIS OR STASIS? 326 The Security Outlook 330 New Identities , New Ideas 337 VIII. CONCLUSION 342 BIBLIOGRAPHY 354 VI . EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This thesis explores the development of Australian concepts of national security, in the context of traditional and continuing psychological dependency upon its links of alliance to the West. The Government claims that Australia's policy of defence self-reliance within an alliance framework is a 'conceptual watershed' that has 'liberated' Australian foreign policy; but it is an old theme in defence policy. Australia still awaits a real revolution in its security concepts and sense of regional identity. ANZUS, symbol of Australia's ties to the western community, and the false impressions and expectations it creates, now acts more to inhibit than to assist Australia's future growth as a nation. George Washington observed that "the nation which indulges toward another an habitual hatred, or an habitual fondness, is in some degree a slave" and that a truly independent nation bent upon charting its own course in the world "may safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies". Australia's own history points to the enduring good sense of those observations. There is little more to be gained from alliance than from acguaintance - and to sustain the latter, existence of the former is neither necessary nor desirable as a permanent state of affairs. Both Australia and the United States can in the future "safely trust to temporary alliances for extraordinary emergencies" The need for an independent national defence was recognised before Federation in 1901. However, Australians lacked confidence in their ability to survive as a fully independent nation. Australian national interest was identified with supporting the British Empire, and in maintaining a racially pure "British" society. There also developed a belief in some kind of informal Anglo-Saxon brotherhood that carried with it a moral obligation for America as well as Britain to help protect the 'indefensible continent* against an invasion by an Asian power. Still, Australia developed its own defence policy and acquired a navy of its own; but it continued to allow foreign and economic policy mostly to be determined in London. World War I saw Japan and Australia cooperate to eliminate Germany's Pacific presence before the end of 1914. Australia was safe, but felt obliged to send troops and its navy to support Britain in the northern hemisphere. From this point onward, Australia was drawn ever more toward the notion of a global Imperial Union, with common defence, foreign and economic policies, coordinated from London. The practical difficulties of this were identified and ignored. Australia forsook self-reliance for the promise of British assistance in time of threat, in return for Australia's commitment to Imperial (British) interests. Australian support for Britain hobbled relations with America, but in December 1941 Britain could not provide the promised "main fleet to Singapore". Australia's troops and airmen
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