Dangerous Allies by Malcolm Fraser

Malcolm Fraser was a stauch supporter of the US when he was the Prime Minister of Australia from 1975 to 1983. But after he left politics, he realised Australia's blind allegiance to the United States is dangerous and leaves us vulnerable in our region.

The book gives a good overview of the history of Australia's foreign and defence policies, and the reasons they were in place.

Before Federation, Australia consisted of a collection of colonies, governed by appointees of Great Britain. Those governers expected that Britain would support them if any of the colonies were actually attacked. Any foreign policy was totally controlled by Britain.

When those colonies Federated as states of Australia in 1901, the understanding continued that Britain would defend Australia, and in return, Australia was expected to support Britain in any of its wars. Australia had no navy and no standing army, so it was a necessary arrangement. So we sent our young off to the killing fields of World War I, including the debacle of Gallipoli, around which the ANZAC Day rememberance legend was built.

Australia didn't have its own foreign policy, being a "loyal subordinate" to the British Empire. Every decision regarding Australia's dealings with other countries had to be approved by the British Colonial Office in Whitehall, London.

Fall of Singapore and pivot to USA

The "Singapore Strategy" where any possible invasion threat would be stopped, was meant to protect Australia but this failed spectacularly in 1942 when Singapore fell to Japan.

So Australia's reliance on a foreign power for defence and foreign policy left it very vulnerable to external attack.

After the fall of Singapore, Australia turned to the USA for security and has followed it into many wars, including the disatrous Vietnam and Afghanistan conflicts.

Berlin Wall

Fraser argues in Dangerous Allies that Australia's strategic interests rightly lay with Britain (because we had little choice after Federation) and the US (during the Cold War threat, where the concern was communist forces in Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia could grow in strength, especially as decolonisation was leaving a power vacuum in many of our surrounding countries, and pose a threat).

However, he states the time when Australia should have re-examined its defence and foreign policies was when the Cold War (appeared to) finish and the Berlin Wall toppled. At that time, communist threats in our neighbourhood were generally no longer a concern, and we had the opportunity to forge a new place in Asia.

War on Terror

Fraser strongly disagreed with Howard's rush to join the USA in Afghanistan and Iraq after the September 11 attacks. Australia actually became more of a target because of that involvement; the Bali bombing being one such example. He was very critical of the loss of human rights under Bush's regime.

He says we should have asserted our independence earlier. Australia could still be an ally of the US, but we shouldn't blindly follow it into every one of its skirmishes - moral or not, justified or not, legal or not.

Faser is concerned Australia could be drawn into a military conflict with China if the USA decides to fight over Taiwan or the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands.

He also feels that Pine Gap is not necessary and creates a target and is against the US military presence in Darwin.

Events since publication

Fraser wrote Dangerous Allies in 2014, when he was 84. By then he had been involved in several diplomatic ventures including being Co-Chairman of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group on South Africa (1985–86) and he held roles with the UN, focusing on African commodity issues.

Fraser would have been horrified by the election of Trump and the blunders he's perpetrating in the Middle East, including his blind support of everything Israel wants to achieve.

It has become increasingly clear that Australia's sovereignty has been compromised:

1. Australia has still been subserviant to the British Crown up until this decade as evidenced by The Palace Letters, which show the Queen's wishes to keep Sir John Kerr's correspondence about the Dismissal of Gough Whitlam secret was respected over Australia's wishes and Australia's rights under our constitution
2. Australia is subservient to the US's wishes, as demonstrated by the requirement of Australian sailors to obey the orders of US when serving on the same ship. The US military "rotations" (which are in fact bases), Pine Gap being used to support Israel and the eye-watering expense of AUKUS with little likely return shows we've lost control.
3. Not only in Australia, but most of the Western world's political class has been affected by Israeli propaganda, and are unwilling to criticise its actions in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.

Dangerous allies, indeed.

Posted by Murray. Last modified: 07 May 2026.