American intelligence was warned sending African-American troops to Brisbane under the racist white Australia policy was a "psychological error", while Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen's ill-fated Canberra bid also raised eyebrows in Washington.
The revelations were contained among about 930,000 searchable documents, some of them previously top secret, which the Central Intelligence Agency released online on Wednesday.
Previously, the declassified documents were only accessible in person at the US National Archives.
They were made public due to President Barack Obama's 2009 executive order, EO 13526, that automatically declassified non-exempt documents that were more than 25 years old.
The documents cast new light on the concerns in the upper echelons of the US military concerning the 1942 Battle of Brisbane and the friction between US and Australian troops during World War II.
In a letter to the Office of Strategic Services' James Murphy – who heeded the elite X-2 counterintelligence branch – Lieutenant Colonel Carroll T Harris warned of some "startling information regarding the friction between our troops and the Australian troops in Australia".
The OSS was a precursor to the CIA.
The letter was based on an interview with Chicago Sun war correspondent J Edward Angly in San Francisco and followed the journalist's visit to Australia.
Angly described the beginning of a short-lived "Anzac-American honeymoon".
"The Australians had just lost their entire Eighth Division in toto at the fall of Singapore," Angly reported.
"When you stop to consider hat proportionately in population this would be the equivalent of the Americans losing some nineteen and a half divisions, you can have some understanding of the Australian bitterness against the British at that time.
Approx. 930,000 documents, totaling more than 12 million pages, now available on https://t.co/Jh7dhHEBZM!https://t.co/LNzdJ8gAZo pic.twitter.com/1EANG4vjE7
— CIA (@CIA) January 17, 2017
"They felt that the British attitude at Singapore indicated that they weren't going to do anything to help the Australians.
"Thus began the great Anzac-American honeymoon. The Americans arrived at a psychological time and seemed to offer the security which the Australians had previously looked to the British navy to provide.
"But like all honeymoons, the illusions are collapsing, discord is setting in, daily contact is becoming antagonistic and the Australians are gradually reverting to their 'first love', the British."
Angly described a populace "not yet reconciled to the fact that they are engaged in total war" and described the Australian army as being "sloppy in appearance" with poor discipline.
The fact that American soldiers received duty-free cigarettes was a bugbear for Australians, Angly said.
"Citing our higher pay, they have made this quite a bone of contention," he said.
"Australian soldiers picketed (General Douglas) MacArthur's hotel until our canteens were opened to them.
"When this occurred, it was quite difficult for the Americans to get into their own canteens, as they were so crowded with the Anzacs.
"This was finally stopped by the statement that it was against Australian law to sell them the cigarettes duty-free.
"Consequently, much ill feeling developed over the method in which this whole thing was handled. The Australian troops resent it very much and seem to take this resentment out on the American military police whenever the situation offers."
American military police outside Brisbane's Central Hotel in 1942. Their presence caused resentment among Australians. Photo: Queensland State Archives
That led to the infamous Battle of Brisbane on November 26 and 27, 1942, a fierce street battle that resulted in the death of Australian Gunner Edward S Webster and injuries to several more.
"Feeling on both sides ran rather high and a sharp word was all that was necessary to start a fight between members of the two armies," Angly noted.
"From my observation, this ugliness is spreading to the larger garrison towns."
Angly also reported on the racial tensions that arose.
"There is some friction between our negro and white troops from both countries, although it seems to be diminishing," he said.
"It actually started with members of our own forces, although their presence is a direct refutation of the 'white Australia' policy in effect there for so many years.
"These troops have done an excellent job but it may have been a psychological error to send them over there.
"Some of the Australian women will go around with them and this fact causes much resentment amonth the Australians."
While relations between the Australian and American troops were strained, Angly noted that "once the scene of battle is reached, the two bodies of troops get along exceedingly well together".
Reds under the bed
Queensland Communist MP Fred Paterson.
The potential influence of the Communist Party of Australia over Ben Chifley's federal Labor government was a concern to the CIA, but it noted Queensland was the home of Australia's sole communist parliamentarian.
"(The) US Naval Attache in Melbourne has reported that the Labor government is under communist domination, with two cabinet members probable communists and another cabinet member and the Speaker of the House communist sympathizers," the April 1949 CIA report noted.
"There are, however, no known communists in the Federal Parliament and only one state legislator (Queensland Parliament) is a known party member."
That party member, Bowen MP Fred Paterson, remains the only Australian parliamentarian to be elected to office on a Communist Party ticket.
In the communiqué, titled Communist Influence in Australia, the CIA expresses concern about communist influence within the Chifley Labor government.
"(It) is believed that 1) militiant influence within the Labor Party, although diminished, will continue to be a deterrent to a strong government anti-communist campaign, and 2) the (Australian Communist Party), through its control of key unions in industry and transport, is still capable of crippling Australian production before the government can take effective counteraction."
Newspaper intrigue
The newly released CIA documents also revealed a "conference" between then-agency director Walter Bedell Smith and Sir Keith Murdoch – father of Rupert Murdoch – and Queensland Newspapers managing editor Colin Bednall on June 8, 1951.
The topics of conversation at that conference were not disclosed.
Queensland Newspapers remains the publisher of News Corp publication The Courier-Mail.
Sir Joh's prospects
The CIA watched Sir Joh Bjelke-Peterson's ill-fated Canberra bid with interest. Photo: SMH archives
A few decades on, the CIA watched with great interest then-Queensland premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen's federal political ambitions.
In the director's National Intelligence Daily of March 5, 1987, it was noted Sir Joh's bid to become prime minister would "improve (Bob) Hawke's chances of reelection".
But the CIA's assessment of Sir Joh's likelihood of taking The Lodge proved to be somewhat prescient.
"In recent public opinion surveys, an opposition coalition led by Bjelke-Petersen outpolled Hawke's Labor government," the report noted.
"Bjelke-Petersen's sudden popularity, however, probably stems largely from growing public discontent with Hawke's handling of the economy, which is in its second year of slow growth, and with the lackluster performance of Liberal Party leader (John) Howard as head of the opposition coalition.
"Bjelke-Petersen's strongly conservative policies – especially his opposition to trade unions – are unlikely to stand up well under closer scrutiny by the Australian public.
"It is also unlikely that the National Party could win enough seats in the next election for him to become prime minister.
"Nonetheless, Bjelke-Petersen stands a good chance of gaining control of the federal National Party and is almost certainly positioning himself to become a power broker for the conservatives at the national level."
Have you been able to find any hidden gems in the CIA document dump? Email the reporter with any tips.
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