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Gough Whitlam | |
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| Born | 11 July 1916 Kew, Victoria, Australia |
| Died | 21 October 2014 Elizabeth Bay, New South Wales, Australia |
| Nationality | Australian |
Gough Whitlam was a progressive Australian politician who served as prime minister of Australia from 1972 until being overthrown by the CIA in 1975.[1]
Domestic policy
Whitlam supported Aboriginal strikers and drafted the first laws for indigenous land rights. He initiated equal pay for women and free higher education.[1]
Foreign policy
After taking power, Whitlam withdrew all Australian troops from the Vietnam War and moved towards the Non-Aligned Movement. He condemned the U.S. war crimes in Vietnam, Israel's genocide in Palestine, and France's nuclear tests in the Pacific Ocean. Whitlam welcomed refugees from the CIA's 1973 coup in Chile.[1]
CIA opposition
After Whitlam was elected, a CIA office in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) wrote that Australians "might as well be regarded as North Vietnamese collaborators." He threatened to close the CIA's facility at Pine Gap near Alice Springs. In 1974, when Whitlam was elected for a second term, the U.S. government sent Marshall Green to Australia. Green had organized the 1965 coup against Sukarno in Indonesia, which led to up to a million deaths. On 11 November 1975, the day he was overthrown, Whitlam was scheduled to inform parliament about the CIA's secret presence in Australia.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 John Pilger (2020-06-01). "The Forgotten Coup Against ‘The Most Loyal Ally’" MintPress News. Archived from the original on 2022-03-13. Retrieved 2022-07-02.