Peter Edwards

Peter Edwards is a historian specialising in Australia’s national security policies and policy-making. He is the Official Historian of Australia’s involvement in conflicts in Malaya, Borneo, and Vietnam, for which he wrote Crises and Commitments (1992) and A Nation at War (1997). He is also the author of Arthur Tange: Last of the Mandarins (2006), Permanent Friends? Historical Reflections on the Australian–American Alliance (2005), and Prime Ministers and Diplomats (1983); the co-editor of Facing North (vol. 2, 2003); the editor of Defence Policy-Making (2008) and Australia Through American Eyes (1977); and a founding editor of the series of Documents on Australian Foreign Policy. His latest book is Law, Politics and Intelligence: A life of Robert Marsden Hope (2020).

Peter Edwards reviews 'The Secret History of the Five Eyes: The untold story of the international spy network' by Richard Kerbaj

December 2022, no. 449 • 25 November 2022

Richard Kerbaj is the latest in a long line of journalists and other writers to write a book on the intelligence agencies of the Five Eyes countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand). His major claim is that he has conducted interviews with more than a hundred current and former intelligence officers, as well as four former prime ministers, Britain’s The ... (read more)

Peter Edwards reviews 'The War Game: Australian war leadership from Gallipoli to Iraq' by David Horner

October 2022, no. 447 • 26 September 2022

At first sight, the title of David Horner’s new book, The War Game, is an uncharacteristically flippant reference by a serious historian to a deadly serious business. Horner has taken the term from writers such as Jonathan Swift and Horace Walpole, who saw war being treated as a game in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The carnage of the industrial-scale wars of the twentieth century, w ... (read more)

Peter Edwards reviews 'Persons of Interest: An intimate account of Cecily and John Burton' by Pamela Burton with Meredith Edwards

September 2022, no. 446 • 27 August 2022

Persons of Interest does not fit readily into any familiar genre. It crosses the borders of biography, psychology, Cold War history, and family studies. When Pamela Burton and her sister Meredith Edwards decided to write a book about their parents, they realised that different readerships would be attracted to different parts. Who would be interested in a book about the marriage, and the post-divo ... (read more)

Peter Edwards reviews 'Forgotten Wars: The end of Britain's Asian empire' by Christopher Bayly and Tim Harper

October 2007, no. 295 • 01 October 2007

Notwithstanding the old adage, you can tell a certain amount about a book by its cover, especially if it has two covers, each displaying a different subtitle. The British edition of Forgotten Wars, on sale in Australian bookshops, has the subtitle ‘The End of Britain’s Asian Empire’. The cover photograph shows Lord Louis Mountbatten, in spotless white naval uniform, inspecting a guard of hon ... (read more)

Peter Edwards reviews 'Return to Vietnam: An oral history of American and Australian veterans’ journeys' by Mia Martin Hobbs

April 2022, no. 441 • 23 March 2022

Australia’s Vietnam War has passed through several phases in the last six decades. In the mid-1960s the commitment of combat forces by the Menzies and Holt governments was strongly supported. The war and the associated conscription scheme became the focus of enormous controversy in the late 1960s and early 1970s, contributing to Labor’s electoral success in 1972. Gough Whitlam did not pull out ... (read more)

Peter Edwards reviews 'Ministers, Mandarins and Diplomats: Australian foreign policy making 1941–1969' by Joan Beaumont, Christopher Waters, and David Lowe, with Garry Woodard

May 2003, no. 251 • 01 May 2003

Important political issues sometimes cut across traditional party lines, making it harder for us to confront and debate them. The ‘children overboard’ affair, for example, raised important questions about the relationship between public servants and their ministers. Some of these questions were blurred in the subsequent debate, however, for a simple reason. Since the 1970s, governments from bo ... (read more)

Peter Edwards reviews 'Spinning the Secrets of State: Politics and intelligence in Australia' by Justin T. McPhee

December 2020, no. 427 • 25 November 2020

It is not surprising that a book on the politicisation of intelligence in Australia should begin and end by referring to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. For many Australians, that episode will long remain the classic example of the misuse of intelligence for partisan political purposes, in sharp contrast to the ideal that intelligence analysts should speak truth to power, giving policymakers their u ... (read more)

Peter Edwards reviews 'The Partnership: The inside story of the US–Australian Alliance under Bush and Howard' by Greg Sheridan

October 2006, no. 285 • 01 October 2006

If journalism is the first draft of history, this book is a rough-hewn draft of some important historical chunks. Greg Sheridan, the foreign editor of The Australian, may not match some of his colleagues there in gravitas, intellectual depth, or analytical precision, but he compensates with an abundance of enthusiasm and enviable access to those in high office. In the early and mid-1990s, when The ... (read more)

Peter Edwards reviews 'Stanley Melbourne Bruce: Australian internationalist' by David Lee

October 2010, no. 325 • 01 October 2010

One of the most disconcerting aspects of the 2010 election campaign was the intrusion of former prime ministers and aspirants to that post. Liberals had tired of Malcolm Fraser’s interventions long before he decided not to renew his membership of the party. Labor supporters did not welcome another round of bickering between Bob Hawke and Paul Keating. The interventions of Mark Latham were hardly ... (read more)

Peter Edwards reviews 'The Nashos' War: Australia's National Servicemen and Vietnam' by Mark Dapin

March 2015, no. 369 • 01 March 2015

In late April, the commemorations of the centenary of the Gallipoli landing will inevitably overshadow another significant anniversary in Australia’s military, political, and social history. On 29 April 1965, fifty years to the week after the landing at Anzac Cove, the Menzies government announced the commitment of an Australian infantry battalion to the growing conflict in Vietnam. That announc ... (read more)