‘Reds Under the Bed’, or was it all in

their heads?
How Australian public perception of
communism was shaped in the 1950’s
during the Cold War

By Isabelle Webb
 Prominent factors that shaped public perception of
the ‘Red scare’ within Australia during the Cold War
in the 1950’s
During the 1950s, communism was not perceived to be as widely accepted as the
political ideology it is today. During the Cold War, majority of Australian society
feared the prospect of the ‘Reds’ taking over their country. This nation- wide trepi-
dation was brought about through political factors, manipulation of the media at the
time and the initiation of unwanted proxy wars.

Collectively, it can be said that during the Cold War “words replaced bullets” and as
such, it became a “battle of hearts and minds” for Australians.i

Australia’s Involvement in the Cold War

It can be said that the Cold War went for and the communist Eastern bloc.
45 years, between 1941 until 1991.
The Western allies consisted of countries
During this period, tensions between the such as the United States, Great Britain,
United States of America and the Sovi- New Zealand, South Vietnam, France,
et Union (now known as the Democratic West Germany (from 1955) and Australia.
Republic of Russia) was the key factor The Communist Eastern bloc included
for why the War nations such as The
dragged on for as Soviet Union, Po-
long as it did.ii “The Cold War was historically land, East Germany,
a period of time in which the Albania, Bulgaria,
Essentially, the world was ideologically Yugoslavia, Romania,
Cold War was his-
divided in political theory and Czechoslovakia, and
torically a period Hungary. iv

of time in which social constructs.”

the world was Once World War II
ideologically divided in political theory had concluded in 1945, the Union of Sovi-
and social constructs. Europe even had a et Socialist Republic (USSR) had installed
notional barrier famously labelled by Win- left-wing governments who had been
ston Churchill as the “Iron Curtain” during liberated by the Red Army.
a speech in 1946 at Westminster College,
Fulton, Missouri.iii Consequently, this installed fear among
Western superpowers as they saw a gen-
Primarily the underlining conflict re- uine threat of communism spreading to
volved around the capitalist Western bloc their own countries.
It was arguably ’The Marshall’ plan, which was The use of ’Cold’ in the context of the war’s name
signed in 1948 in the United States, that aimed to is said to be due to the fact that although nuclear
aid Western Europe; while also maintaining power weapons were present during the conflict, much
as a retaliation for the communist takeover in the of the warfare between the heavyweights centred
East. This began to build tensions between the around ”...jabbing at each other, testing each oth-
two opposing sides.v ers’ weaknesses...” as opposed to physical violence
between the countries.vi

Geo-political map of the Cold War. Source: https://sites.google.com/site/ausnam3166588/nato-and-seato

The Origins of Communism

Communism is said to have been the politi- However, the term itself has evolved in
cal and social doctrine heavily derived from meaning over the years, going from being
ideas that were introduced by philosophers an ideology to an active progression to-
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their wards ”challenging the existing order [of
1875 text named ‘Critique of the Gotha Governance] in its entirety”, this was la-
Programme’, also known as ‘The Commu- belled as ”modern communism”.viii
nist Manifesto’.vii
Communism arguably grew alongside the
At its core, communism can be defined as a industrial society, which was in its infancy
classless society, whereby all ownership of within Great Britain and Continental Eu-
property and resources are owned by the rope in the late nineteenth century.
state.

“Let the ruling classes tremble at a

Communistic revolution...Workingmen of all
countries unite!”
~ Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
 The Appeal of Communism
Theoretically, Communism reflects ideals which However, this was the wave of strikes that took
appeal to a working class society. places throughout Australia during the late 1890s
which would push the relationship between unions
Some of these characteristics include equality and communism to create their platform onto the
being emphasised, whereby there is a classless way political sphere.
of life. There is guaranteed employment, as each
citizen is entitled to a job due to the government An example of this can be identified in 1892 when
owning the production and distributions of goods the price of wool had been heavily lowered which
and services within the state. led to Pastoralists demanding a “freedom of con-
tract” which was heavily rejected by the Shearers’
Lastly, communism is seen to be a benefit in urban- Union.
ised areas as there is an internally stable economic
system, due to the Government controlling how Other notable unions of workers also began wag-
much money and property citizens receive. This ing campaigns for better working conditions and
creates employment and an incentive to participate higher wages in the shipping, rural and mining
in the economic growth of the state.ix industries.

Communism gained popularity in Australia pre- “The Communist Party of Australia

dominately through trade unions. took advantage of the mining,
The Communist Party of Australia took advan- shearers and timberworking
tage of the mining, shearing and timberworking industries in order to gain
industries in order to gain popularity, as they were popularity”
eager to make these trade union adopt socialist
objectives, which were characterized by the com-
munist beliefs. As a result of these strikes, union leaders were
jailed and union officials’ desire to move towards
A short attempt at creating a socialist political electing its own representation in parliament be-
stance was pressured by a utopian socialist named gan to form.xi
Will Lane in the mid-1890s.x

CPA offices in Woolloomooloo Sydney vandalised in the 1950s. Source: https://www.greenleft.org.au/

content/key-communist-role-post-war-unions-detailed
 Australia’s alliance with the Western
World, Treaties and proxy wars
It can be said that Australia directly mirrored the claiming that is was not in Australia’s interest to
fear of communism, due to its alliance with Great support Western military intervention in South-
Britain and the United States during the Cold East Asia, but of the hegemonic pressures of the
War era. United States, constituting the region as being a
communist threat to capitalist civilisation.xv Col-
Towards the end of the 1940s and the beginning lectively, these factors led to the introduction of
of the 1950s was when the United States became treaties, which were created to prevent the threat
more distressed toward the prospect of a commu- of communist expansion in the Western world -
nist overthrow. which Australia was very much part of.

In 1949, China had become more matured as a In 1951, along with New Zealand and the United
communist nation, upon the Soviet Union taking States, Australia signed a document pledging mu-
hold of the State. tual protection, which would aim to prevent and
discourage the development of communism. This
In the same year the Soviet Union acquired an would be executed through increasing the United
atomic bomb, which also contributed to the idea States’ presence within the Pacific Region.xvi
that communist expansion was a likely possibility.
xii
Collectively this brought about the concept The significance of the ANZUS Treaty in regards
known as the ‘domino theory’. to Australian perception of communism being
feared within society was substantial.
It can be said that Australian leaders generally be-
lieved that communism was a threat to the coun- In an article published in 1952 in ’The Argus’,
try due to its expansion over Europe and Asia.xiii they quoted the Minister for External Affairs
However, as McLean explains in his article, ’Aus- of the time, Mr. Casey, stating that the ANZUS
tralia in the Cold War: A Historiographical Re- Treaty was at was most important “...for our own
view’, many critics believe that “Australia’s belief security, he said, should a threat occur”. xvii
in the domino theory and support for the contain-
ment of communism in Asia were by-products of
US domination.”xiv McLean justifies this idea by

From left: Lieutenant-General Sydney Rowell, Australian Chief of General Staff, Major-General William Gentry,
New Zealand Chief of General Staff and Admiral Arthur Radford, US Commander in Chief Pacific, gather in
Honolulu for the first meeting of ANZUS military representatives on 21 September 1952.
Source: Australian War Memorial P00474.020 via http://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/anzus-treaty
 Mr. Casey went on to state that the United The main aim of the treaty was aimed to pre-
States’ place within the treaty was a benefit for dominately create a block for communist gains in
Australia due to the ”American Administration Southeast Asia.xix The plan was to implement of
at the highest political and military level, and SEATO funded educational program designed
gives us, in turn, the means of putting our own to prevent the spread of communist ideology in
views and interests forward at the same level in lower economic regions.
complete frankness and friendliness.”xviii
“(The ANZUS and SEATO) documents The benefit for Austra-
The alliance with lia was that geograph-
the United States represented not only a safe guard for ically Asia is close,
and New Zealand Australian borders, it also introduced thus possible threat of
can be said to have Australian society to the potential Communism invasion
been a safety-blan- was viewed as a genu-
ket of sorts, which threat of communism” ine threat.xx
created a sense of
security and reassurance for the Australian peo- As a result of the United States intervention in
ple during a time of ambiguity and fear. the Vietnam War in the early 1970s, France and
Pakistan withdrew from the organisation, which
Another treaty which aligned with the same eventually led to the disbanded of the treaty
characteristics was created four years later altogether in 1977.xxi
known as SEATO. The Southeast Asia Treaty
Organisation was a document signed in Manila Nonetheless, these two documents represented
by Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, Pa- not only a safe guard for Australian borders, it
kistan, the Philippines, Thailand, and the United also introduced Australian society to the poten-
States. tial threat of communism.

The Petrov Affair and media influence of

public opinion of ‘The Red Scare’
Much like any Western society, Australian media Officer for the MVD (Ministry of Internal Affairs
loves a scandal. of the Russian Federation). The pair were sent
by Soviet Security Chief, Lavrentiy Beria, to join
The Petrov Affair was a smear campaign against the their embassy in Canberra in 1954. It is said
Vladmir Petrov and his wife Evdokia Petrova in that Petrov made contact with ASIO in order to
1954. Ten year prior to this case, The Australian gain political asylum, and in return would provide
Security Intellegience Agency (ASIO) was formed, evidence of Soviet espionage.xxiv
with its main objective was to primarily investi-
gate ‘The Case’.xxii The defections of both Vladmir and Evdokia were
highly publicised in the Australian media.
This was the name given to investigate leaks of
information which might be given to the Soviet Examples of this can be identified in ’Centralian
Union concerned with the Australian Department Advocate’ in1954, when the event of their brisk
of External Affairs.xxiii departure from Darwin airport to ”somewhere
[else] in Australia” was reported.
Petrov played a large role in forming public fear
of the idea that the threat of communism can The article stated that Northern Territory police
be from within the country rather than abroad. ”grappled with Russian couriers” and that the
Vladmir Petrov was a Colonal for the KGB, known event itself will go down in history as ”one of the
as the Soviet Secret Police, and his wife was an greatest diplomatic dramas of all time”.xxv
In many ways this statement rings true as it sig- Menzies himself was known as an ’anti-commu-
nified the reality of communist spies being pres- nist’ prior to the scandal, however his speech to
ent in Australia. A sense of fear grew and Aus- the House of Representatives on the evening of
tralian media exploited this idea. Photographs the 13th of April that year proved to be more
of the pair being defected circulated newspapers about pushing the fear of communism to the
worldwide. Australian people.

One notable journalist during this period was In regards to how the public responded to his
Bernard Freedman, who was a member of the speech, Harold Logan, a researcher in the
press gallery and wrote for The Argus in Mel- National Library in Melbourne, recounts hear-
bourne. He reported Prime Minister Robert ing it on the radio at the time. Logan described
Menzies’ announcement of Petrov’s defection the news as a “shock and unbelievable, not just
through the Royal Commission in regards to because of the event but because something so
espionage. Freedman was significant during this interesting had occurred in Canberra.
time as he was the only one to be granted an in-
terview with the Soviet Ambassador of the time, This was especially fascinating as Canberra at
Generalov. the time was no more then a few suburbs and an
open space. This event is more typical of those
The embassy was not receiving phone calls at occurring in Britain, not Canberra.” xxvii
the time, so Freedman walked to the embassy
and was allowed in, and as a result he gained Nicola Connell states in her text ’Conflicts and
recognition for his efforts.xxvi Resolutions Arising From The Petrov defec-
tions’ that the public generally ”praised” Petrov
Many scholars believe the Petrov Affair was a for ”escaping the grip of communism” and that
way of the Menzies Government attempt at Menzies promised a ”full inquiry” into Petrov’s
gaining popularity in order to win the 1954 Aus- claim and would seek answers into the depth of
tralian federal election. the Soviet espionage.xxviii

Evdokia Petrov, flanked by two Russian couriers, is escorted to the plane at Mascot Airport. 19 April,
1954. Source: https://oralhistories.moadoph.gov.au/anne-andgel
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