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Foreword

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2013

Peter Dean
Affiliation:
Australian National University, Canberra
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Summary

On 8 May 1942, John Curtin riveted the House of Representatives with an adjournment speech on the naval battle then raging in the Coral Sea:

As I speak, those who are participating in the engagement are conforming to the sternest discipline and are subjecting themselves with all that they have – it may be for many of them the last full measure of their devotion – to accomplish the increased safety and security of this territory.

Given the critical character of the battle, the uncertainty then as to its outcome and the spontaneous nature of the Prime Minister’s words, I would argue that in Australian political discourse this comes in character as close to the great brief orations (greatest of all being Lincoln’s Gettysburg address) as Australian politics has ever come.

For the political class in Australia, one utterly steeped in the powerful grip of the logic of British Imperial Defence, the emotional shift Curtin’s words captured was probably more important in broadening the Australian strategic mind than any cold calculation. In 1942 we learned the language of both self-reliance and new alliances in planning for our survival, even if, as fear of a threat to our national security receded, the traditional commitment to the United Kingdom was revived in later years in modified form.

Type
Chapter
Information
Australia 1942
In the Shadow of War
, pp. vii - x
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2012

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  • Foreword
  • Edited by Peter Dean, Australian National University, Canberra
  • Foreword by Kim Beazley
  • Book: Australia 1942
  • Online publication: 05 January 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139540681.020
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  • Foreword
  • Edited by Peter Dean, Australian National University, Canberra
  • Foreword by Kim Beazley
  • Book: Australia 1942
  • Online publication: 05 January 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139540681.020
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Foreword
  • Edited by Peter Dean, Australian National University, Canberra
  • Foreword by Kim Beazley
  • Book: Australia 1942
  • Online publication: 05 January 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139540681.020
Available formats
×