The 1980s weren’t just about Walkmans and Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet album – the early 80s was also the climax of the Cold War between Russia and the USA. And now, 30 years later, the national archives has released classified documents that shows then Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser signed off on a proposal to let the US fire MX missiles from California into the Tasman Sea.
The documents – as reported by News – show that in 1981 the Federal Australian government agreed to let the US fire two missiles at us in 1984. The documents even outline how the tests would be announced to parliament:
“I wish to inform the House that the Government has agreed to the US request and that two test launches will occur in January/February 1984. I would emphasise that the tests do not involve warheads as such and the missiles will not contain any nuclear material.
“The missile launch point is to be Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The flight path does not pass over the Australian mainland or Tasmania. The nearest point to the Australian mainland will be some 220 kilometres east of Cape Pillar in Tasmania.
“In the very unlikely event that the missile moved off the pre-computed safety corridor of the flight path the missile would be destroyed.
“Assuming that we would not want a vessel fairly readily identified as a range instrumentation shop scheduled to call at an Australian port in the period October/November 1983, we could nominate July/August 1983 as the time for the ship visit and January/February 1984 as the time for the missile tests.”
The News article states that the idea was nixed in 1985 after Bob Hawke became PM, although that doesn’t quite explain why it didn’t happen in 1984.
Malcolm Fraser told News that he wouldn’t make the same decision today. Good to know.
[News]
RooBoy
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:14 AMI grew up with this things flying overhead in Alberta Canada back in the 80s.. no big deal.. in fact it was kind of fascniating to watch
RooBoy
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:14 AMsorry.. “these things”
johnd
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:37 AMThis comment has been deemed inappropriate and has been deleted.
b3n
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 9:42 AMDoesnt sound like an issue at all… interesting though…
cleverclogs
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:35 AMI really want to know what comments are being deemed inappropriate and deleted!
olearymo
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 2:04 PMsame! it’s killing me!
Scott
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 5:26 PMYeah me too. I think they should have the option to expand if you want to read them (which we all will). Anyway if a commentor continues to post inappropriate comments they should end up banned. So it would be good to see what comments get you banned on Gizmodo
Danny Allen
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 6:12 PMI’m being very careful, and really only tageting the minority of commenters who don’t adhere to community guidelines (and some of our awesome regulars who forget sometimes).
There’s no reason for the negativity that has begun to creep into some Giz comments. It has to go. Visit big comment threads on sites like Kotaku and BloodyElbow (1000+) and you won’t see it.
Here’s the important part. If the editors miss an inappropriate comment — please use the “report comment” button to inform us. Help us keep the conversation moving forward. Cheers!
Comments only removed if:
- Attacks other readers or authors in a rude manner; or
- Are racist, sexist, etc; or
- Aren’t on topic and don’t have any substance (ie, “this is old news blah blah”); or
- Point out some small typo in a overly rude way; or
- Moan why a story was posted on Giz (if weird science doesn’t interest you don’t click on it then complain); or
- How, because your favourite product wasn’t chosen then Giz must be biased. It’s OK to disagree.
Commenter in this case was a “this is old news” armchair editor. No thank you.
Harryh
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 12:02 AMSo, Gizmodo isn’t interested in comments aimed at improving their editorial performance? Timeliness is a common complaint against traditional news sources. Why should Gizmodo be exempt from similar complaints.
Reporting old news is fine, but you should reveal that this is the case. Suppressing such criticism makes you no better than the Murdoch rags that have been known to print stories years old as current news.
Danny Allen
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 6:01 AMExcept we’re talking a day or two here, which is easily an exception. Most weird science stories you see on Giz today won’t be on, say, SMH until two days from now.
And given the amount of hits on this story — many Giz readers hadn’t seen it and found it interesting. Ultimately, we’re here to report and find interesting things for you guys. Not to get into an argument about what should and shouldn’t be posted. If you’ve already seen something in the news. Don’t click it and move on to the next story.
Just quit whining and ruining it for everyone else.
olearymo
Friday, January 6, 2012 at 2:42 PMseriously, harryh, I consider myself to be reasonably in the loop on news, but very few of the things people say ‘old news’ to have I actually seen before Gizmodo. I think they do just fine. Maybe a day out, on some things?
Vebi
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:47 AMNo worse than Gillard heartily agreeing to have them set up camp here.
Mr Odd
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 5:54 PMI could short that to: “No worse than Gillard”
Graham
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:01 AMI remember back when I lived in Tassie during the 80′s that my classmates and I used to draw piccies of missiles with MX emblazened on the side, no doubt as a result of this planned event being on the news at the time. I was probably 10 or 11.
David
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 1:07 PMfrankly, test shots of blanks during a cold war period could of been critical
David Shears
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 1:14 PMCompared to the thousands of tonnes of explosive material tested in the Woomera Restricted zone, this is really no big deal.
Michael
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 2:33 PMThis comment has been deemed inappropriate and has been deleted.
johnd
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 5:44 PMThis comment has been deemed inappropriate and has been deleted.
Jack
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 2:51 PMI remember when I was like 10 years old, this crazy old guy used to tell me these stories of nuclear bombs going off near them, and radiation spread around everywhere, here in QLD and wherever he said.
I’m not sure why I’m typing this.
Kroo
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 5:30 PMConsidering the Austalian government let the British conduct nuclear blasts at Maralinga in the 40′s and 50′s using Austrailians as guinepigs, this means nothing.
Scott
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 5:35 PM“Malcolm Fraser told News that he wouldn’t make the same decision today. Good to know.”
Please explain why it is good to know? this is a test of military hardware to ensure it works as needed. it was a test by our most important ally. Dispite the many faults of the USA they happen to be a CRITICAL part of our defense strategy. Why would allowing them to fire a missile to the Tasman Sea be a problem. unless of course you are some head in the sand passivist hippie. Nick??
richsingleclub.com
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 5:50 PMThis comment has been reported for inappropriate content and is awaiting review.
Womp
Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 6:29 PMI remember this being in the news decades ago. The plan was cancelled because it was on the news and the Australian public didn´t want it.
@Scott The argument that killed it, and still applies today, if it is such a bloody brilliant idea why can´t the Sepos test their missiles the other way around, firing them from Australia to USA?