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6 - Australia and Asia in the Cold War

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Summary

There was little time to pause and reflect on electoral success and Percy's latest tilt towards leadership of the party. Two very different developments dominated the immediate aftermath of the election. One was his purchase of Headingly House, and the other was preparation for a Commonwealth foreign ministers' conference, the first of its kind, to be held in Colombo in January. Within three weeks of the election Spender was flying to Ceylon, via Djakarta. In the eyes of many, the year 1950 also marked the spread of the Cold War into Asia. In February Stalin signed a friendship treaty with Mao's new Chinese People's Republic and in the middle months of the year communist-led pro-independence groups launched or intensified attacks against governments in Vietnam, Malaya and the Philippines. More than these developments, the North Korean invasion of South Korea on 25 June marked the start of a new prospect of escalating wars in Asia. The attack triggered a military response by a US-led United Nations force, and from November, Chinese involvement in support of North Korea.

Spender was only Minister for External Affairs (and for Territories) for sixteenth months, and he treated this period as a long-awaited window of opportunity in which to realize some of the reforms he sought in Australia's overseas relations.

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Australian Between Empires
The Life of Percy Spender
, pp. 123 - 142
Publisher: Pickering & Chatto
First published in: 2014

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