Page 59 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2022

JUNE 2022 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
BOOKS OF INTEREST 59
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FROM CONTROVERSY TO CUTTING EDGE
A HISTORY OF THE F-111
IN AUSTRALIAN SERVICE
(2ND EDITION)
By Mark Lax
Published by Big Sky Publishing RRP $39.99 in hard cover
ISBN 9781922615176
This book traces the history, acquisition and service life
of the fleet of F-111 fighter bombers which began entering service with the RAAF in
1973. The story begins with the decision of the Menzies government in 1963 to approve
THE WAR OF NERVES
INSIDE THE COLD WAR MIND By Martin Sixsmith
Published by Profile Books; Dist. by Allen & Unwin
RRP $49.99 in hard cover ISBN 9781781259122
Author Martin Sixsmith witnessed the end of the Cold War first-hand, reporting for the BBC from Moscow during the presidencies of Gorbachev and Yeltsin. In this book,
he draws on a vast array of archives and sources, as well as his own experiences, to
the acquisition of what the press at the time described as a ‘paper aeroplane’. While design was proceeding in the US, no aeroplanes had been built. Lax has certainly not flinched from detailing the political controversy
that surrounded the F-111’s acquisition, the technical problems that almost engulfed it, and the subsequent dramas, such as cost blow outs, that swirled around it. He clearly understands that high profile Defence projects are political as well as technical minefields. Menzies predicted the aircraft would last until at least the late 1970s. As it turned out, he was wrong by some decades. The F-111s were finally withdrawn from service in December 2010. In this second edition (first edition published
2011), Lax also lays out the disposal strategy. A fine book, especially for military aviation enthusiasts.
take us into the simmering tensions and inherent paranoia of the Cold War, framing
it for the first time from a psychological perspective. Sixsmith has delved into the ‘thinking of millions of people’ with both sides declaring
the Cold War a contest of competing social, economic, political and ethical systems and with each side deploying psychological means to keep their domestic population convinced of their superiority. One chilling sentence in this book should resonate with readers: ‘One of communism’s discoveries was that people could be persuaded to renounce their freedom without force.’ It is against
this backdrop that the current Russian president Vladimir Putin has emerged as leader, determined to revive much of the old suspicion and distrust. A timely book that deserves a wide audience.
AN ARMY OF INFLUENCE
EIGHTY YEARS OF REGIONAL ENGAGEMENT
By Craig Stockings,
Peter Dennis (editors) Published by
Cambridge University Press RRP $69.95 in hard cover ISBN 9781316514399
This book has emerged the
2019 Army History Conference
– ‘An Army of Influence’,
which focused specifically on Australia’s regional engagements – Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Malaysia, East Timor, Thailand, Vietnam, The Philippines, South
LOOKING FOR TROUBLE
By Virginia Cowles Published by Faber;
Dist. by Allen & Unwin RRP $34.99 in hard cover ISBN 9780571367542
First published in 1941, it seems appropriate that this new edition of Looking for Trouble, the memoir
of legendary foreign correspondent Virginia Cowles, is introduced by Christina Lamb, Chief Foreign Correspondent for The Sunday Times, a newspaper for which
Korea and topical today, the Solomon Islands. As Chief of Army, LTGEN Richard Burr writes in the foreword, ‘Australia cannot escape geography, demographics or history. We
live with the reality of a more strategically crowded region.’
He recognises too the need to ‘build effective relationships’. In the light of recent events, the chapter ‘Was the juice worth
the squeeze?’ (Rueben Bowd) is particularly relevant, tackling as he does the issue of the amount of assistance already provided
to the Solomon Islands (mostly via ADF health deployments) versus the strategic significance of the archipelago, which remains as vital today as it was in World War II. Bowd urges the ADF
to revisit cooperation through health deployments, delivery soft diplomacy in a genuinely helpful way. This book offers some thought-provoking analysis at a time when regional cooperation is more important than ever.
Cowles also reported from the frontline of wartime Europe. Cowles, who stumbled into a career as a frontline reporter, gives readers a compelling account of her life as a trailblazing female war reporter, an eyewitness to major events of the twentieth-century. From Madrid in the Spanish Civil
War to Berlin the day Germany invaded Poland; to Paris as it fell to the Germans and finally to London on the first day of the Blitz, Cowles saw it all. How her words resonate today: ‘War meant soaring prices, lack of food, and houses with bomb-holes in them.’ She saw and understood the domestic upheaval in the lives of ordinary citizens as war raged around them. Intrepid, resourceful and determined, she blazed a trail that others would follow. This
is a compelling contemporary account of the events and personalities she encountered in those years.