US planned to fire missile at Australia, secret Cabinet papers from 1980s reveal

Sunday Telegraph (Sydney) ^ | 1st January 2012 | Samantha Maiden

[naturalman1975]

A SECRET US plan to test MX missiles by firing them from California to the coast of Australia was signed off on by then prime minister Malcolm Fraser.

And it can be revealed that the federal Cabinet agreed to keep the intercontinental ballistic missile tests secret because it was "preferable for the matter not to become an election issue".

Details of the extraordinary plan, signed off by the most senior members of the Federal Government, are revealed in Cabinet papers released today by the National Archives.

Titled "United States Proposal Regarding Test Launch of MX Missiles", the file is marked "SECRET" and was presented to Cabinet by the defence minister James Killen.

The file notes that in June 1981 Cabinet had decided, after a verbal briefing from Mr Fraser, that there was "no objection in principle to the United States proposal".

Ronald Reagan, who was pursuing the strategic theory of Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) against the Russians, was seeking a firm date and Cabinet discussed the plan again.

Mr Fraser had outlined the US proposal "for two test launchings of the new MX missile to the Tasman Sea off Cape Pillar".

The proposed words for an announcement to Parliament are included in the Cabinet submission.

It states: "I wish to inform the House that the Government has agreed to the US request and that two test launches will occur in January/February 1984. I would emphasise that the tests do not involve warheads as such and the missiles will not contain any nuclear material.

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

I understood MAD. I was talking about the way the writer made it sound like Reagan was one crazy dude. As far as that goes I don’t mind our advisaries being not quite sure won’t the president will do.