Phillip Deery - Spies and Sparrows: ASIO and the Cold War

The Cold War, like the world wars, was driven by huge global forces, but measured its casualties in a myriad of individual tragedies. In Spies and Sparrows Phillip Deery, Australias pre-eminent Cold War historian, relates the painful stories of eight of ASIOs targets and informants. Deery combines his profound knowledge of the international and national political context and extensive archival research in Australia, Britain and the United States with empathetic insight into each subjects personal experience, to reveal a new and important perspective on Australias Cold War.

PETER EDWARDS

Deery offers fascinating insights into the murky world of ASIOs intelligence-gathering on communists in Australia from the 1950s to the 1970s, based on Australian and UK intelligence files. The vividly drawn characters range from the patriotic Christian housewife who became a sparrow (penetration agent) in the Adelaide Communist Party to the nervy Czech walk-in who was an ASIO spy on both the CPA and the Trotskyites. A must-read for intelligence buffs and anyone who enjoys a good story.

SHEILA FITZPATRICK

Phillip Deerys wide-ranging biographical studies have made him a leading expert on Cold War security in the West. In this intriguing collection he returns with enhanced insight to notable Australian victims and to those responsibleASIOs sparrows.

STUART MACINTYRE

Phillip Deery has written a fascinating account of the human side of the Cold War in Australia. Spies and Sparrows paints eight personal portraits of the victims and victors of the Cold War. Some were courageous idealists, some were self-serving activists and others were oddballs, but, as Deery shows us, all were motivated by political passions that led them into the world of secrecy, surveillance and betrayal. Deeply researched, Spies and Sparrows performs a highly impressive job in lifting the veil of secrecy over Australias hidden history.

DAVID McKNIGHT

ASIO AND THE COLD WAR

PHILLIP DEERY

MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRESS

An imprint of Melbourne University Publishing Limited

Level 1, 715 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia

www.mup.com.au

First published 2022

Text Phillip Deery, 2022

Images various contributors, various dates

Design and typography Melbourne University Publishing Limited, 2022

This book is copyright. Apart from any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968 and subsequent amendments, no part may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means or process whatsoever without the prior written permission of the publishers.

Every attempt has been made to locate the copyright holders for material quoted in this book. Any person or organisation that may have been overlooked or misattributed may contact the publisher.

Photos courtesy Adelaide Mail (Dr Paul James, 1950, p. 65); ASIO (surveillance photo of Anne Neill outside the Peoples Book Shop, Adelaide, March 1956, p. 83); Bulletin (Maxmilian Wechsler, 1975, p. 162); Evening Standard (Michael Brown, 1958, p. 129); News Ltd/Newspix (Evdokia Petrov, 1955, p. 110 and Demetrius Anastassiou, 1974, p. 148); University of Sheffield Archive (Thomas Kaiser, 1987, p. 19); Val Noone (William Dobson, March on Washington, 1971, p. 41)

Cover design by Philip Campbell Design

Typeset by Megan Ellis

Cover image courtesy Topfoto UK

Printed in Australia by McPhersons Printing Group

9780522878301 (paperback)

9780522878318 (ebook)

To Julie

How important is the work of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO)? Its so fucking necessary its frightening. We could tip either way. So says Alex, an ASIO case officer in the 2005 play The Spook, set in 1965 when the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) was a shadow of its former strength. Alexs comment touches on ASIOs concerns about the perceived threat to national security from communists and its readiness to employ agents to infiltrate communist organisations.

The fictional spook in this play was drawn from the actual experiences of Phil Geri, a Bendigo hospital orderly who was recruited by ASIO at the age of nineteen. He was a Catholic, a member of the Citizens Military Force and highly patriotic. I didnt know what ASIO was. I was keen on the CMF and thought it was another arm of the army. In 1963 he joined the Bendigo branch of the CPA, which was very small, mainly elderly people who met in private homes and talked about the workers cause. He soon became a delegate to the state conference of the CPA, at which he memorised faces and during lengthy debriefings matched them to the hundreds of photographs taken by ASIO. But I would look at the CPA members in their 60s and 70s, and think: What are you doing here, Phil, talking a load of crap? There is no real security information coming out.