Harold Holt

Rt Hon Harold Holt
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17th Prime Minister of Australia
In office 26 January, 1966 – 19 December, 1967
Preceded by	Robert Menzies
Succeeded by	John McEwen
Born	5 August 1908 Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Died	17 December 1967 Point Nepean, Victoria
Political party	Liberal

Harold Edward Holt CH (5 August 1908–17 December 1967) was an Australian politician and the 17th Prime Minister of Australia, now best remembered for the bizarre circumstances of his death and for his controversial role in maintaining and expanding Australia's role in the Vietnam War.

He was born in Sydney, the son of Tom Holt, a well-known theatre director, but he was educated at Wesley College in Melbourne. He then studied Law at the University of Melbourne, residing at Queen's College, where he was elected president of the Sports and Social Club (1931). He practised briefly as a solicitor before being elected to the House of Representatives for the United Australia Party (UAP) in 1935.

Early career

At 27, Holt was one of the youngest members of the House, but his obvious ability brought him rapid promotion to the ministry in 1939. In 1940 he joined the Army, without resigning his seat. Shortly afterwards three Cabinet ministers were killed in an air disaster at Canberra, and the Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, recalled Holt from the Army to become Minister for Labour and National Service. This earned him the ironic nickname "Gunner Holt".

Holt had a reputation as a high-living playboy, but in 1947 he married Zara Fell, a fashion designer, and adopted her three young sons from her first marriage, which had ended in divorce. After eight years in opposition from 1941 to 1949, Holt returned to office in Menzies's new Liberal government in 1949 as Minister for Labour and National Service and Minister for Immigration. In this position he continued and expanded the massive immigration program begun by his Labor predecessor, Arthur Calwell.

In 1956 Holt became Deputy Leader of the Liberal Party and thus Menzies' heir apparent. In 1958, when Sir Arthur Fadden retired, Holt succeeded him as Treasurer. His career was nearly derailed in 1961 when his economic policies caused a recession which came close to losing the 1961 election for the Liberals.

But his stocks, like the economy, soon recovered. He was appointed to the Ministry by Menzies and served as federal Treasurer until January 1966, when Menzies finally retired as Prime Minister, naming Holt as his successor. By this time Holt had been an MP for almost thirty-one years -- the longest wait of any non-caretaker Australian Prime Minister.

Holt as Prime Minister

Harold Holt, June 1st, 1967.

Holt's short term in office meant that he made relatively little personal or political impact on the prevailing direction of the coalition's polices. He is mainly remembered today for the unusual circumstances of his disappearance and presumed death.

One of the most significant aspects of Holt's succession is that it marked the beginning of an unprecedented period of turmoil for his party. For twenty-two years, from its founding in 1944 to his retirement in 1966, the Liberal Party of Australia had only one leader -- Robert Menzies -- but after 1966 there were to be five leaders in as many years, culminating in a humiliating loss to the Labor Party in 1972.

Menzies' departure had left a power vacuum in the party, and factional rivalry soon began to fester. The founder's dominance over the party, and the fact that Holt's succession had been known for many years, meant that a second rank of leaders had not developed. Holt's death forced the party to choose a successor from the Senate after Holt's presumed successor William McMahon was unexpectedly vetoed by their coalition partners, the Country Party.

Political historian James Jupp says that, in domestic policy, Holt identified with the reformist wing of Victorian Liberalism. One of his most positive achievements was that he began the process of breaking down the White Australia Policy by ending the distinction between Asian and European migrants and by permitting skilled Asians to settle with their families.

The major foreign policy issue of Holt's Prime Ministership was America's growing involvement in the Vietnam War, and Holt gave the United States government his unqualified support. Shortly before taking office, as Army Minister, he had trebled Australia's troop commitment. Over the previous two years, American military involvement had dramatically escalated as its puppet regime in South Vietnam struggled to hold power against growing civil resistance in the South and increasing incursions by the forces of Communist North Vietnam.

In line with its obligations under the ANZUS pact, Australia had initially agreed to contribute military advisers and a small aount of material support. But by 1964 Australia was coming under increasing pressure from the U.S. to send combat troops in large numbers. At the end of 1964 Menzies re-introduced National Service and announced that conscripts would be sent to Vietnam to bolster the regular Army units already stationed there.

Like most Australian conservatives, Menzies and Holt accepted the prevailing U.S. political and strategic dogma regarding the supposed threat to Asian countries from Communism -- encapsulated in the so-called "Domino Theory" -- and Holt unquestioningly continued Australia's support for U.S. involvement in the Vietnam conflict.

In October 1966 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson toured Australia at Holt's invitation. Soon after, at a speech given on a visit to Washington, Holt confirmed Australia's support for the U.S. war effort in Vietnam with his now-famous slogan "All the way with LBJ". Although Holt clearly intended it as an expression of support, he was evidently unaware of its other possible interpretation: in the USA the phrase "going all the way" was a popular euphemism for having sexual intercourse. This unintended double-meaning was later lampooned by the anti-war movement, who saw it as exemplifying Australia's servile relationship with the United States, and Holt's own obsequious attitude towards Johnson. There was further controversy in early 1967 with the controversial visit of the Air Vice Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky, Vice-President of South Vietnam, who was reviled by the anti-war movement.

Holt fought his first general election as Prime Minister in December 1966, focussing his campaign almost entirely on the issue of Vietnam and the supposed Communist threat in Asia. Labor leader Arthur Calwell bitterly opposed Australia's part in the war and promised that Australian troops would be brought home if Labor won office. At the time of the 1966 federal election, however, Australia's involvement in Vietnam still enjoyed overwhelming popular support. The coalition scored a stunning victory over the ALP, winning many former ALP seats, dramatically expanding on the perilous one-seat majority that Holt had inherited from Menzies. The coalition swept back into power with (at the time) the largest majority since Federation.

In 1967, however, following Labor's crushing defeat, Calwell retired and Gough Whitlam succeeded him as Labor leader, proving a much more effective opponent. At the 1967 half-Senate elections, the Liberals lost a number of seats. Some Liberals, free of the strict discipline of the Menzies years, began to plot against what they saw as Holt's weak leadership, but the brewing leadership struggle was dramatically brought forward by Holt disappearance in December 1967.

Disappearance and aftermath

Harold Holt collecting snorkelling paraphernalia from his car at Portsea, Victoria, 1966.

On 17 December 1967, Holt went swimming at Cheviot Beach on Point Nepean, near the holiday resort of Portsea, south of Melbourne. Apparently seeking to impress his friends, Holt, who was 59 and had had a recent shoulder injury, plunged into the surf. He disappeared from view and was never seen again. Despite an extensive search, his remains were never found. He was officially presumed dead on 19 December 1967.

In his 1969 book, The Power Struggle, journalist Alan Reid (a senior figure in the Canberra press gallery who wrote for the Packer press) hinted that Holt was suffering from a heart ailment, and he suggested that the PM had been increasingly unwell in the weeks leading up to his disappearance, but this has never been confirmed.

The need to replace Holt as leader triggered a major political crisis that threatened the future of the Liberal-Country Party coalition. Reid states that trouble was already brewing within the Liberal Party, and that Party Whip Dudley Irwin had drafted a letter to Holt, warning him of unrest within the party, but Holt died before Irwin could deliver it.

After Holt's disappearance, Country Party leader and Deputy Prime Minister John McEwen was sworn in as caretaker Prime Minister. McEwen's elevation came about because, on its own, the Liberal Party had never enjoyed majority support in the Australian electorate. Since the party's formation, it had only been able to form governments because of its long-standing coalition agreement with the Country Party (which later became the National Party). This included a standing arrangement that, when the coalition was in power, the Country Party leader would automatically serve as Deputy Prime Minister, which meant acting as Prime Minister when the incumbent was overseas or on leave. However, McEwen was sworn in as Prime Minister in his own right (albeit in a caretaker capacity pending the Liberal Party electing a new leader) and not, as popularly believed, merely acting Prime Minister.

McEwen's appointment as caretaker Prime Minister sparked off a major political crisis for the coalition. A leadership ballot was scheduled for a few days after Holt's memorial service in Melbourne in early January 1968, and most observers assumed that Treasurer William McMahon would succeed Holt as Liberal leader. However, the day after he was sworn in, McEwen stunned his coalition partners when he made the shock public announcement that neither he nor his Country Party colleagues were prepared to serve under McMahon if he were elected as Liberal leader; moreover, McEwen pointedly refused to give his reasons, saying only that McMahon knew what they were.

The reasons behind McEwen's stance were various. On a personal level, it was well-known around Parliament that the dour Country Party leader, a former soldier and farmer, detested the affluent and urbane McMahon. But McEwen had also long been at odds with McMahon's enthusiastic support for free trade policies and the reduction of tariffs -- which in McEwen's eyes would hurt Australia's primary industries -- as well as McMahon's interest in broadening trade links with countries such as Japan. They had also clashed bitterly over McMahon's alleged connections with controversial commentator Maxwell Newton, whom McEwen had long suspected of being a covert lobbyist on behalf of overseas interests. Most importantly -- and correctly, as it was later revealed -- McEwen knew or suspected that McMahon was an inveterate 'leaker'. Years later, former lobbyist Richard Farmer confirmed that McMahon had regularly provided him with leaked Cabinet information over a period of many years. There was also speculation that McEwen simply wanted the top job for himself.

Although McMahon had been considered a virtual certainty -- indeed, he later became Prime Minister after McEwen retired -- McEwen was implacable in his opposition. This effectively removed McMahon from the contest, since the Liberals dared not risk a split in the coalition. Several contenders emerged, including the Minister for External Affairs Paul Hasluck, but after strenuous back-room manoeuvering by Party Whip Dudley Irwin and Army Minister Malcolm Fraser, a surprise candidate emerged -- Senator John Gorton, the Minister for Education and Science.

At the ballot, Gorton emerged victorious, succeeding Holt as Liberal leader and Prime Minister. Gorton was the only person in federal history to become Prime Minister while sitting as a senator, although a by-election was held in Holt's former seat to enable Gorton to transfer from the Senate to the House of Representatives.

Holt was an affable and well-liked figure in politics, and Australians of all political views were saddened by his death. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson returned to Melbourne for his memorial service.

There were many rumours about Holt's death, such as that he had committed suicide or faked his own death in order to run away with his mistress. The mystery also became the subject of numerous urban myths in Australia, including claims that he had been kidnapped by a Russian or Chinese submarine or that he had been abducted by a UFO.

In 1983, British journalist Anthony Grey published a book in which he claimed that Holt had been an agent for the People's Republic of China and had been picked up by a Chinese submarine off Portsea and taken to China.^[1] Most likely, however, Holt was caught in the strong undertow off the beach and swept out to sea.

No inquest was held at the time because Victorian law did not provide any mechanism for reporting presumed or suspected deaths to the Victorian Coroner. The law was changed in 1985, and in 2003 the Victoria Police Missing Persons Unit formally reopened 161 pre-1985 cases where drowning was suspected but no body was found. Holt's stepson Nicholas Holt said that after thirty-seven years there were few surviving witnesses and no new evidence would be presented. On 2 September 2005, the Coroner's finding was that Holt had drowned in accidental circumstances on 17 December 1967.

After Harold Holt's death, his widow Zara was made a Dame Commander of the British Empire (DBE), becoming Dame Zara Holt. She later married for a third time, to a Liberal party colleague of Holt's, Jeff Bate, becoming Dame Zara Bate.

Holt has been memorialised in several ways:

• The United States Navy Knox class frigate USS Harold E. Holt (FF-1074);
• A huge VLF transmitter in Australia, the Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt;
• The Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre, a swimming pool complex in the Melbourne suburb of Malvern. (The complex was already under construction at the time of Holt's death, and since he was Malvern's local member it was named in his memory; the irony of commemorating him with a swimming pool has been the source of much amusement to Australians.)
• Several other memorials also exist.

See also

• First Holt Ministry
• Second Holt Ministry

Notes

1. ^ Grey, Anthony. The Prime Minister Was a Spy, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London, 1983

Literature

Harold Holt and his mysterious death also appear in Bill Bryson's book Down Under (in the UK/AUS) resp. In a Sunburned Country (in the USA).

References

Reid, Alan
The Power Struggle
(Shakespeare Head Press, Sydney, 1969)

Jupp, James
Party Politics in Australia 1966-81
(George Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1982)

External links

• Harold Holt - Australia's Prime Ministers / National Archives of Australia

Prime Ministers of Australia
Barton | Deakin | Watson | Reid | Fisher | Cook | Hughes | Bruce | Scullin | Lyons | Page | Menzies | Fadden | Curtin | Forde | Chifley | Holt | McEwen | Gorton | McMahon | Whitlam | Fraser | Hawke | Keating | Howard

Leaders of the Liberal Party of Australia
Menzies | Holt | Gorton | McMahon | Snedden | Fraser | Peacock | Howard | Peacock | Hewson | Downer | Howard

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