A failure of imagination: R.G. Casey and Australian plans for counter‐subversion in Asia, 1954‐1956

Abstract

This article is a study of some aspects of the non‐military response of the Menzies government to the decolonisation of the European empires and the cold war in Asia. In the mid‐1950s R.G. Casey, the Minister for External Affairs, was given responsibility by the cabinet to develop a programme of Colombo Plan ‐ educational, cultural, propaganda, intelligence and political initiatives ‐ which the Menzies government hoped would influence the outcome of the cold war in Asia. This article suggests that an examination of these government initiatives reveals some important insights into the nature of the Menzies government’s understanding of and response to the revolutionary changes which swept through Asia in the decade after the Second World War.