[“Having a treaty doesn’t mean that the small brothers have to accept everything what big brother is saying. Only because the US have carried the biggest burden during WWII in the region does not mean that we have to be thankful in such a submissive way that we are unable to criticise US policies when they turn evil.”]

Yes you’re right in that the minor signatories to an alliance with a much larger global superpower should not have to prostrate themselves to the superpowers every whim. Malcolm Fraser and Gough Whitlam have always championed a policy of an independent Australian voice in the alliance; mind you Whitlam paid the price when he became an active CIA target.

Gough got the call “onya bike” from the GG just as he was about to table in Parliament the results of an investigation into the CIA’s covert activities in Australia. Funny that, but in politics, personal and governmental moralities fly out the window as cunning and sly take root.

The public relations arm of Gov’t’s always display a shop front agenda for the consumption of the morally righteous and for the portrayal of an altruistic nature. But behind that shop front are the true lies and motivation’s that belie that which is displayed.
New Zealand has consistently shown a spine that displays neither fear nor favour to any above the needs of her own people first. Sticking to her own imperatives resulted in the US expelling New Zealand from the Anzus Treaty but legs of lamb stamped product of New Zealand still populate the supermarket freezers of the US.

That’s something to be admired (the plucky spirit of defiance not the legs of lamb) and Australia’s wishy washy wannabe pollies need to take heed of our tiny cousin’s example and grow some gonads.....oh err...ovaries. Is the treaty valid if one tripartite-ee is expelled? Defunct I would have thought? I hope so course that would put Howard in an even worse legal situation.

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As to the overall perception of the Australian populace regarding the motivation’s of the US in Asia Pacific Region during WW2 – much of it is total fantasy. The US did what it did in the WW2 Asia Pacific Theatre for its own reasons, its own agenda not because it was helping Australia out by stopping a Japanese invasion.....no, my goodness far from it.

The US priority was the return of the Philippines which would be followed by direct non-stop firebombing of Japanese cities in a vengeful blood lust payback for Pearl Harbour. There was never any Allied strategy for the defence of Australia because Australia was never under a threat of invasion; it was never a concern of Churchill or Roosevelt.

PM Curtin’s pronouncement of “The Battle for Australia” after the fall of Singapore was a myth that existed in Curtin’s mind and those of the larger Australian population that he was able to convince with propaganda that utilised hoax materials such as Japanese maps captured from Japanese troops in China (unauthenticated) that showed arrowed invasion points circling the Perth Region and Northern Australia resplended with Japanese writing. Hoax panic sightings of Japanese sailors/troops in northern Queensland and the NT, even the Brisbane Line was pure fantasy, displaying forged currencies intended for use in Indonesia and New Guinea etc. etc. etc.

Curtin disseminated his evidence of the impending invasion behind “closed door” press briefings and the public swallowed it all up.
PM Churchill and President Roosevelt conferred with PM Curtin on the fact that there was not one piece of evidence to confirm a Japanese plan to invade Australia and that such a huge undertaking was beyond Japan’s military capabilities, but to no avail Curtin was convinced otherwise.

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With time and Allied victorious advancements pushing the Japanese back further and further Curtin finally succumbed to reality and recanted in 1943.

There’s every possibility that Curtin’s great anguish, his worry over his charge of - Australia – overtaxed his physical abilities contributing to his early death in July 1943. His body was returned to his adopted Perth for burial at Karrakatta Cemetery.

The oft quoted “Battle of the Coral Sea” as the battle in defence of Australia is a fantasy. The battle was to stop a Japanese Navel Task Force from attacking Port Moresby from its sea approaches, the US believed that the Japanese control of the whole of New Guinea was not in the US interest. Australia didn’t factor into the effort other than its military support for the US defensive counter attack. Another oft quoted fantasy is the litany of US boys who paid the supreme sacrifice in the defense of Australia that liter the beaches of islands from Australia to Japan.

The last time I heard that one was when Joe Hockey regurgitated it sitting next to the new US Ambassador to Australia during Q & A on the ABC. Talk about cringe factor!

The Japanese attacks that did occur on Australia were hunts in search of US military assets thought to be in those areas. Some US assets were found and bombed such as those in Darwin Harbour but in general there was nothing in the target areas to bomb so aircraft made the return journey to their bases in Indonesia with their ordinance still on board. To lighten the load and thus increase range, they dropped their bombs anywhere for instance the bombing of Exmouth WA was ostensibly to sink US submarines based there, when none were found they dropped their bombs on opportunistic targets on their way back to Indonesia. Onslow, Port Hedland and Broome were some of those opportunistic targets that were bombed just because they happened to be on the way back to base.

End....