ABSTRACT
The establishment of ASIO was expected to solve three points of tension in the post-war alliance between Australia, the UK and the USA. With a functioning ASIO, Australia would become the recipient of US missile-range technology; the UK would receive US missile design material; and the CIA report of ‘the leak in high government circles in Australia’, reputedly akin to the Gouzenko affair in Canada of 1945, would be investigated and the spies uncovered. However, in the short run none of those expectations was met. This lack of outcome confirmed the fact that the establishment of a new civilian intelligence body in Australia was not the real issue for the US. The US was seeking a simple excuse to deny technical secrets to the UK and Australia while retaining their friendship and support in the Western alliance. Thwarting the British development in military high technology and slowing the US sales of new British jet-engined aircraft was also an important motive in raising an intelligence scare.
