The ANZUS Treaty 70th Anniversary Podcast Series
September 1st marks the 70th Anniversary of the signing of the ANZUS treaty, arguably the most important strategic document in Australia’s post-war history. Though it has thankfully only had to be invoked once, by John Howard in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, ANZUS has been the backbone of Australia’s defence for 70 years. The product of careful negotiation and fortuitous circumstances, ANZUS is one of the Menzies Government’s most enduring legacies, maintaining relevance in an ever-changing world. Indeed, at his retirement press conference Menzies himself described it as ‘the best single step that had been taken in the time of my Government’.
The events of World War Two had starkly revealed that the United States of America was the coming power in the Pacific. Menzies himself had pre-empted this, appointing in 1940 the first Australian legation to the United States. The United States was credited with ‘saving Australia’ against the ‘Japanese menace’, and as the new threat of Communism emerged on the horizon, successive Australian Governments were anxious to secure America’s enduring commitment to our defence.
Australia and America were clearly united by shared values, most important of which was a shared belief in liberal democracy, but the Americans had nevertheless resisted the entreaties of the Chifley Government to form a defensive pact. In 1951 the Menzies Government’s prompt committal of troops to the U.N. backed Korean War, combined with an American need to get Australia to agree to a ‘soft’ peace treaty with Japan that would allow her partial rearmament, created a circumstance in which negotiations could finally bear fruit. Australia’s Ambassador to the United States Percy Spender has traditionally been given the lion’s share of the credit for this outcome, but Menzies was also vital, particularly in his far-sighted views towards Japan that would later produce the famous Commerce Agreement of 1957.
To celebrate this important occasion, the Robert Menzies Institute has three special guests who will be joining us on the Afternoon Light Podcast to discuss the ANZUS legacy. They are:
Stephen Loosely AM, Deputy Chairman, Non-Executive Director of Thales, former Labor Senator and current Senior Fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the United States Studies Centre. During the Hawke and Keating Governments he chaired the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.
Professor Timothy Lynch, Professor in American Politics and the Associate Dean (International) in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Melbourne. He has written several books on American foreign policy, the latest of which is In the Shadow of the Cold War: American Foreign Policy from George Bush Sr. to Donald Trump.
Dr Brendan Nelson AO, President of Boeing Australia, former Minister for Defence, Australian Ambassador to Belgium, Luxembourg, the European Union and NATO, and later Director of the Australian War Memorial. He was in charge of defence at a time when Australian troops were deployed to Iraq, Afghanistan, East Timor and the Solomon Islands.
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