McQueen, Humphrey: 1977 piece on the early days of Quadrant

McQueen, Humphrey

‘Quadrant and the CIA’, Gallipoli to Petrov: Arguing with Australian History, George Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 1984, pp. 180-95 (pdf of out-of-copyright material made available by the author)

This piece was originally written in 1977. (You will need to rotate the view on the pdf.) It discusses the early days of the journal Quadrant, the organ of the Australian Association for Cultural Freedom (AACF), and its ‘unwitting’ funding by the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

Internal AACF ructions are touched on. Some of the names featuring are Richard Krygier, Sir John Latham, Professors Henry Mayer, PH Partridge and RN Spann, James McAuley, James Jupp, Ken Gott, Isi Leibler, and John Kerr. Quadrant began in the midst of this in 1956.

Information about the CIA funding became available in 1967 although Quadrant editor McAuley tried to downplay the connection. Much of the article looks at the mechanics of the CIA relationship and later connections with the United States Information Service and corporations, fostered by US ambassadors and Australian ministers and public servants.

Honest History records its appreciation to Humphrey McQueen for making his private archives available to Honest History.