Why does the ABC treat Charles Spry so shabbily?

John Miller

I served Australia, ASIO and by definition the West during the worst years of the Cold War - a phenomenon that the left wing and academe are desperately trying to airbrush from history. Anthony MacAdam provided a more than reasonable defence for the late Sir Charles Spry. The worst thing about this terrible program is that it revealed quite conclusively that the culture of the ABC has not changed and it continues to perpetrate the myth that Sir Charles was best mates with Prime Minister Robert Menzies.

What was not recognized was that in those days, the Director-General of security was directly responsible to the PM. And there were certainly sufficient matters about which to brief the Prime Minister. I served under Sir Charles for a number of years and I know that he had a hard war and in becoming the second but most important Director-General of ASIO, it was against the backdrop of hostility and hatred from the left and especially fellow travelers who looked to Moscow. The public broadcaster, the ABC was a willing tool of the Left in an on-going smear campaign. They could tell lies better than we could tell the truth. and the public believed the ABC.

The sordid fact remains that Australia and its institutions was well penetrated by Soviet intelligence. The tragedy is that Sir Charles did not invest sufficient time and resources into counter intelligence. Looking back, there is no doubt that his Organization was systematically penetrated by the KGB and other hostile agencies. Yet for all the hoopla surrounding this TV program, ASIO racked up some important successes under Spry and they should not be forgotten. He probably served a little longer than necessary and while he was known to have a drink, it was pretty much par for the course as it was/is with police, security and intelligence organizations around the world. I never saw him dead drunk or even too tipsy to not be in control of his faculties.

The ABC used David MacKnight, a former communist as a so-called expert and his hostility was manifest. Also, Professor Desmond Ball was quoted as an intelligence historian, which is only partly true. He did more to uncover Soviet intelligence operations in Australia by virtue of being involved in breaking Soviet codes. Lurking in the background was the former member of the Communist Party of Australia, Mark Aarons who has made a career out of criticism of ASIO and poorly substantiated claims that Australia was home to many former senior Nazis who happen to be war criminals. A picture of him in his book depicts the amount of pages obtained from ASIO under FOIA but it fails to mention conspicuously that his family were agents of a foreign power, in receipt of funding from Moscow and dedicated to revolution in Australia. We wait in vain for a balanced and honest assessment of ASIO and its operations. It has never enjoyed the respect accorded MI5 and the FBI. Those of us who served for so many years deserve better.

Adam Henry

It is typical of the so called Australian Cold War warriors to argue (despite evidence to the contrary) that they were saving the world from communist domination, but the sad fact of the matter is that ASIO were not doing this, nor were the Menzies Government. They were certainly seeking electoral advantages and marginalising political opponents with the help of the intelligence services.
Evatt suffered the onset of dementia and this caused his early retirement from politics and public life, but it is of course acceptable to smear him as an admirer of Stalin (which he was not) and as a fruit cake. Menzies made one or two positive comments about Hitler's Germany in the 30s I recall, but I do not think it would be fair to suggest that he was an 'admirer' of Hitler and therefore a closet Nazi. There is archival evidence that European fascists were certainly let into the country with the knowledge of Spry and ASIO on the basis of their propensity to harass local communists. I am happy to provide the references. The use of ASIO to monitor journalists, academics, activists has been now increasingly well documented. The facts show that the overwhelming majority were neither communists nor indeed any threat to security. The Hope Royal Commission was scathing of Spry and Spry's own testimony paints a troubling picture of unaccountability and anti-democratic tendencies within ASIO. Given Spry’s own fascination with the weaknesses of others it would seem that his alcoholism is a legitimate part of the Spry story.
To suggest that the Soviet penetration of Australian External Affairs in the late 40s was in any way comparable to the penetration of MI5 during the 1950s is ludicrous.I might add that KGB penetration of ASIO in the 1980s caused the Americans to cut off intelligence to ASIO itself.
ASIO have never caught and successfully prosecuted even one Communist (or for that matter one major spy), double agent or plain traitor, not one. So what successes did they have? It must also be remembered that the most damaging Soviet espionage came from the heart of the Anglo-American diplomatic and intelligence establishment. The worst being the infiltration of MI5 under the leadership of Roger Hollis. These were men from the heart of the Tory establishment not from the left! In fact these traitors were from the same socio-political class of men who with a few strokes of a pen expediently handed millions of human beings to Stalin. Saving the world indeed!

Tom Smith

I am horrified. I am a great nephew of Sir Charles, and are still disgusted by the treatment of him. Typical ABC