A STUDY GUIDE BY ROBERT LEWIS http://www.metromagazine.com.au ISBN: 978-1-74295-040-2 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au OVERVIEW infiltrate Communist Party branches officers. It casts a fresh, critical eye with undercover agents. over the spy agency’s early history, I, Spry (Peter Butt, 57 minutes) is a from its first fumbling counter- dramatised documentary about the The sensational 1954 defections of espionage operations to its evolution founding of the Australian Security Soviet Embassy officials, Vladimir beyond government scrutiny and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), and Evdokia Petrov, deliver Spry a infiltration by the KGB. and its history under its first director, great intelligence victory. But when Charles Spry. It explores some of the a former ASIO officer appears in From Spry’s brazen attempt to cold war politics of the period from surveillance photographs and major influence the 1958 federal election 1945 to 1972, and raises important counter-espionage cases begin to to his controversial investigation into issues about the balance between fail, Spry soon finds himself in a Liberal prime minister John Gorton, security and citizens’ rights in our place spies call the ‘wilderness of Spry emerges as an enigmatic master democracy. mirrors’. Security threats appear to spy who ultimately subverts the be everywhere – from the highest very democracy he is charged with In 1949, with a nuclear arms race office in the land to within ASIO protecting. set to escalate the cold war, Prime itself. Minister Menzies appoints Colonel Curriculum Applicability Charles Spry to take charge of Based on newly declassified the fledgling ASIO. The staunchly information, including Spry’s I, Spry is a useful resource for senior anti-communist, fifth-generation secret testimony at the 1974 Royal classes (Years 10–12) in: soldier recruits new officers to fight a Commission on Intelligence and • Australian History covert war against a cunning enemy. Security, I, Spry features ASIO • Modern History – cold war Their primary task is to investigate surveillance footage and candid • Politics SCREEN EDUCATION Australians spying for the Soviets and interviews with former intelligence • Media studies Above and front cover: Charles Spry (Tony Llewellyn-Jones) 2 2 1 3 4 5 6 7 1: Staff cadet Charles Spry, 1931 (Royal Military College of Australia Archives) 2: Leader of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin 1922–1953 3: Lydia Mokras (Natela Dzuliashvili) 4: Series A6201, Item 62 – Royal Commission on Espionage – Evdokia Petrov at Mascot Airport, Sydney. Courtesy of the National Archives of Australia 5: Vladimir Petrov (Alex Blokh) 6: Russian Club singer (Maria Okunev) and violinist (Anna Okunev) 7: Atomic bomb test, Maralinga, South Australia (1956) BEFORE WATCHING any Russian spies in Australia. rity information with Australia because THE FILM B Let existing police forces carry out secrets are being passed on to Russia this task. from the Soviet Embassy in Australia. Imagine that you are a decision-maker What do you do? in Australia’s security organisation. 2 The Soviet-influenced Communist Party of Australia is a legal organisation. A Use only legal powers to investigate Here are some situations that you There are many known Communists where the Soviet Embassy is might face. What would you do? We in positions of power in the union receiving this information from. know that you have limited information movement in Australia. Many others B Use illegal powers if necessary to available to you, but in each case are secretly communist, so you do find out the source of the leaks. decide which of the options seems not know who they are. Some are most appropriate. suggesting their loyalty is to the Soviet 4 You discover who the people are Union rather than to Australia. who are leaking the information to the Then watch I, Spry, and return to these What do you do? Soviets, but you do so only because situations to see if you would change you have ‘cracked’ their secret codes. If any of your decisions. A Accept that people have a demo- they know you have cracked them they cratic right to free speech, free ideas will change the codes and you will lose 1 Australia is part of the Cold War, and and freedom of movement. access to their communications. there is a great fear of the spread of the B Ban the Communist Party as being What do you do? influence of Communism in the world, treasonous and dangerous to Aus- SCREEN EDUCATION especially through the activities of the tralia’s national interest and security. A Prosecute the traitors, but reveal Soviet Union (Russia). that the evidence against them is What do you do? 3 You receive information that our from the cracked codes. most powerful allies, the United States B Do not prosecute, and allow the A Set up a new security body to find and Britain, are refusing to share secu- guilty people to stay free. 3 AUSTRALIA AND THE COLD WAR TIMELINE 1945 Atomic bombs dropped on Japan end the war. 1956 Britain is involved in secret atomic weapons tests at Maralinga in Countries of Europe are divided between those liberated from South Australia. the Germans by the Allies in the west, and those liberated by 1957 Russia launches the first space vehicle, Sputnik. the Russians in the east. These countries adopt the systems and values of the liberator. 1958 ASIO discovers former deputy director Bob Wake coming and going from CPA headquarters. An investigation dubbed ‘Operation 1946 British PM Churchill talks about the forming of an ‘Iron Curtain’ Boomerang’ discovers Wake is meeting with other former between Eastern and Western Europe. disgruntled ASIO officers, Russian intelligence and operatives, and 1947 President Truman talks about the ‘domino effect’ of countries Evatt’s private secretary, Alan Dalziel, in Evatt’s office. Spry calls falling under communist influence. on Menzies to expose the conspiracy. Menzies doesn’t take the advice. 1948 US congressman Bernard Baruch talks about a ‘cold war’ between the democracies and the communist nations. 1959 The Cuban Revolution sees communist Fidel Castro come to power. Continuing communist activity in Asian countries. The Soviet Embassy reopens in Canberra. Soon after, they start 1949 Russia successfully tests an atomic bomb; it is helped by having espionage activities. First Secretary Ivan Skripov is a prime ASIO secret documents passed to it by spies in America. target. He meets with a mature woman who acts as a courier. In The Communist Party gains control of China. reality she is an undercover ASIO agent, code-named ‘Sylvia’. ASIO established by the Chifley Government after pressure by US 1960 New security laws passed in Australia against treason in and Britain. Justice Reed from South Australia is named interim peacetime. director-general until a permanent head can be appointed. Headquarters are based in Sydney under deputy director Bob 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis Wake. Skripov case reaches high point when Sylvia is dispatched to 1950 Adelaide with a Soviet transmitter to hand to an unknown contact. Korean War sees UN troops (including Australians) fighting The contact doesn’t appear. communist North Korean and Chinese troops in Korea. Australian troops assist the British to combat communist 1963 Skripov case closes six weeks later. Hailed as a success, the case revolutionaries in Malaya. is actually a failure and hints at a mole within ASIO. An internal New prime minister Robert Menzies appoints new director- investigation discovers no mole. general, Colonel Sir Charles Chambers Fowell Spry, the former Spry moves resources to counter-subversion. He becomes head of Australian Military Intelligence. Soon after Spry forces obsessed with ‘mind control’, especially via television. Wake’s resignation and moves HQ to Melbourne. Spry is Labor Party become increasingly critical of ASIO when it ignores indoctrinated by MI5 into the top-secret reason for ASIO’s creation Croatian terrorism in Australia because it is anti-communist. – intercepted documents from the Soviet Embassy in Canberra Meanwhile Spry drinks heavily and it is obvious to staff. have suggested Australians are spying for the Soviets. Spry concentrates on investigating the spy ring and infiltrating the 1964 US combat troops sent to Vietnam to resist the communist North Communist Party of Australia. Vietnamese invasion of South Vietnam. The Menzies government outlaws the Australian Communist Party. 1965 Menzies retires. 1951 Legislation outlawing the Communist Party of Australia is declared Australian combat troops sent to Vietnam. Protest age threatens invalid. status quo. A referendum to change the Australian Constitution to give the ASIO targets thousands of anti-war demonstrators. government power to outlaw the Communist Party is narrowly defeated (49.4 per cent in favour, 50.6 per cent against). 1966 Australian conscripts included in combat troops sent to Vietnam. High Court rules that there have been many illegal activities by 1968 Spry investigates prime minister John Gorton’s visit to US communist-dominated unions. Embassy with nineteen-year-old journalist Geraldine Willesee. 1952 United Kingdom becomes the third nuclear power after successful Confronts Gorton. testing in Australia’s Montebello Islands. 1969 Gorton calls for a report into Spry Spry from an officer working for 1953 One of the alleged spies – Frances Burnie – admits giving Australia’s overseas secret intelligence collection agency (ASIS) documents to CPA official Wally Clayton. who worked closely with ASIO in the early 1960s. The report suggests Spry was endangering constitutional rights. Spry resigns 1954 The communist government in North Vietnam defeats the French after a number of months on sick leave. colonial power. 1970 First moratorium – a mass protest against the Vietnam war. Australia signs the anti-communist Southeast Asia Treaty Organization pact. 1971 Announcement of withdrawal of Australian troops from Vietnam. Vladimir Petrov defects thanks to the efforts of ASIO agent Dr Michael Bialoguski.