ANZUS and the Early Cold War

Andrew Kelly

Description

The ANZUS Alliance was a defence arrangement between Australia, New Zealand and the United States that shaped international policy in the aftermath of the Second World War and the early stages of the Cold War. Forged by influential individuals and impacting on global events including the Japanese Peace Treaty, the Korean War and the Suez Crisis, the ANZUS Alliance was a crucial factor in the seismic changes that took place in the second half of the twentieth century.



In this compact and accessible study, Andrew Kelly lays out the tensions that underpinned the formation of the Alliance, as each power sought to extract maximum influence and prestige. He examines how the ANZUS powers worked together (or failed to do so) when responding to massive global events including the rise of the People’s Republic of China and the waning of the British Empire. Kelly comprehensively explores the reasons why Australia and New Zealand disagreed so regularly about mutual security issues, how US global leadership shaped ANZUS, and the British impact on the trilateral relationship, and outlines how these issues set the foundations for today’s world order.





ANZUS and the Early Cold War is essential reading for historians of Australian, New Zealand and American international relations in the twentieth century. Its concise format and readable style will also appeal to general readers interested in the history and foreign policies of these nations, and to anyone who wants to know more about the individual and geopolitical tensions that beset any major alliance.

 

Sujets

• Security
• Treaty
• Nuclear
• Pacific
• Foreign Policy
• History
• Alliance

Informations

• Publié par: Open Book Publishers
• Date de parution: 20 septembre 2018
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781783744978
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

Extrait

ANZUS AND THE EARLY COLD WAR


ANZUS and the Early Cold War
Strategy and Diplomacy Between Australia, New Zealand and the United States, 1945-1956
Andrew Kelly



https://www.openbookpublishers.com
© 2018 Andrew Kelly

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Andrew Kelly, ANZUS and the Early Cold War: Strategy and Diplomacy Between Australia, New Zealand and the United States, 1945-1956. Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2018. https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0141
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ISBN Paperback: 978-1-78374-494-7
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DOI: 10.11647/OBP.0141
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Contents
Acknowledgements
vii
List of Abbreviations
ix
Introduction: Disharmonious Allies
1
Part One: Origins
11
1. Defence Problems in the Pacific
13
2. Japan, ANZAM, and the Bomb
29
3. Movement Toward an Alliance
51
4. ANZUS Negotiations
71
Part Two: ANZUS in Force
91
5. Post-Treaty Issues
93
6. Crisis in Southeast Asia
117
7. A Horrible Dilemma in the Taiwan Straits
135
8. Suez
157
Conclusion
179
Bibliography
183
List of Illustrations
197
Index
201


Acknowledgements
I could not have possibly completed a book of this magnitude alone. Firstly, I must thank Peter Mauch, who originally supervised my PhD thesis and encouraged me to revise its findings into this monograph. His guidance in my academic development has been truly invaluable and it is greatly appreciated. I am also thankful to David Walton, for similar assistance as a supervisor and mentor.
Secondly, I have several other people to thank at various research and tertiary institutions. David Jolliffe at the Australian Prime Ministers Centre was helpful in acquainting me with the primary material available at the Australian National Archives and the National Library of Australia. Mary Rickley, Dean Nogle and Michael Johnson at the Eisenhower Foundation were fantastic in their efforts to help me travel around Abilene, especially in very adverse weather conditions. At the Eisenhower Library, Chelsea Millner and Kevin Bailey were very helpful in finding useful material from the Eisenhower Administration. I am in debt to the many archivists I did not know by name at the Australian, New Zealand and United States National Archives who helped guide me through the important archival material. During publication, Lucy Barnes at Open Book Publishers made a time-consuming process feel incredibly easy. She provided great assistance in leading to the creation of this book.
Some of the material in this book was derived in part from two previously published journal articles. In 2014, I published “The Australian-American Alliance, Recognition of China and the 1954-55 Quemoy-Matsu Crisis” with the Journal of Northeast Asian History, and in 2017 I published “Discordant Allies: Trans-Tasman Relations in the Aftermath of the ANZUS Treaty, 1951-1955” with the Journal of Australian Studies. The latter article is available online at this addres s: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/14443058.2016.1275 744.
Finally, I am thankful to a few people in my personal life. A particular mention must go to Caitlin Holmes, who has been extremely supportive throughout all my professional endeavours. My mother and father, Sharon and Mark, have also been very supportive and deserve recognition for all the help they have given me over the year s.


List of Abbreviations
ANZAM
Australian, New Zealand and British arrangement for the joint defence of Malaya and Commonwealth interests in Southeast Asia
ANZUS
Treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States
JCS
United States Joint Chiefs of Staff
NATO
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation
NSC
United States National Security Council
PRC
People’s Republic of China
ROC
Republic of China
SCAP
Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Japan
SEATO
Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation


Introduction: Disharmonious Allies
In August 1952, delegates from Australia, New Zealand and the United States met in Honolulu for the first formal round of discussions over how the ANZUS Treaty—a defence alliance signed by these countries in September 1951—would work in practice. The treaty required each signatory to “respond to the common danger” in the Pacific, and these powers indeed saw mutual dangers at the time. The Korean War had been raging for over a year and showed no immediate signs of ending. A Communist government in China appeared to have aggressive intentions. Local revolutionaries in Indochina and Malaya had demanded sovereignty from their colonial governments. Framed in this light, a closer strategic relationship between the ANZUS powers should have been cooperative and rather straightforward.
This was certainly not the case. In advance of Council meetings in Hawaii, Percy Spender —architect of the ANZUS Treaty and then Australian Ambassador in Washington—accused the Pentagon of purposely “diminishing the importance” of the alliance to avoid serious consultation with Australia. According to Spender , even Australia’s former enemies—Germany, Italy and Japan—had “the opportunity of consultation on vital matters in a manner which so far has been denied to Australia .” 1 Without a doubt, refusing to consult seriously with the Australians was an American objective. The US Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) had advised Secretary of State Dean Acheson that joint planning with Australia and New Zealand would mean “serious and far-reaching disadvantages to the present and projected state of United States planning for a global war.” 2 This position aggravated the Australians, yet the New Zealanders did not share this view, despite their similar geopolitical circumstances. As one adviser told Head of the New Zealand External Affairs Department Alister McIntosh , New Zealand “did not share the long-standing Australian objective of infiltration into the world’s policy-making hierarchy” after claiming that the Australian delegation almost demanded this outright at Honolulu. 3 McIntosh certainly sympathised with this opinion, and even conceded later that New Zealand “never wanted the damn Pacific Pact in the first place.” 4
How did three allied powers—which shared a common language, similar historical roots and democratic liberal institutions—leave Hawaii with such competing views about the practicality of an alliance signed less than one year earlier? To some extent, disagreements between the ANZUS powers were symbolic of the challenging and divisive time in which the treaty was conceived. While in broad terms these countries shared similar political objectives in combating Soviet-led Communism during the early stages of the Cold War, the underlying purpose of this treaty was unique for each signatory and often created complex diplomatic tensions in the trilateral relationship. Australia, undeniably the most enthusiastic treaty member, viewed ANZUS as a means to rebalance its traditional ties with Britain by fostering a closer strategic relationship with the United States. The treaty limited the likelihood of future existential threats such as those posed by Japan in late 1942, and it provided an additional avenue for Canberra to voice its concerns about world affairs.
Across the Tasman Sea, policymakers in New Zealand were more reluctant to forge a closer political relationship with the United States if it meant damaging relations with Britain. For Wellington, one of the major benefits of ANZUS was that it simply allowed