'They Seem Like a Good Bunch': Liberal Party Support for Violent Croatian Nationalism in Australia 1949-1972

Abstract

The phenomenon of violent Croatian nationalism during the Cold War over the years 1949-1972 was a bitter partisan chapter of Australia's political history. The issue, a small number of emigre Croatians prepared to use violence to achieve their political goals, grew into a significant political controversy in Australia and became a microcosm for the deep political chasm between Australia's major political parties during the Cold War. When violent Croatian nationalists in Australia began to commit acts of violence, the Liberal Party-led government that presided over this period faced fierce criticism. They were accused of inaction, allowing their ideological support for Croatian nationalism to cloud their judgment, and hypocrisy in not prosecuting this issue with the same fervour they had demonstrated in repressing left wing and communist movements. The opposition Labor Party and other elements of the political left became increasingly outraged as acts of suspected Croatian nationalist violence occurred and re-occurred over this period with little reaction from the Liberal-led government. The purpose of this thesis is to examine the role of the Liberal Party in the endurance of this issue in Australia. It considers what they did and did not do to address the violent Croatian nationalist problem in Australia. It does not seek to condemn nor vindicate the Liberal Party and its policies on this issue, rather, to understand and contextualise them. In doing so it reveals a chapter of Australian history far richer and more nuanced than the partisan literature from the period conveyed. This thesis returns to the wealth of rarely examined primary source documents that clearly lay the progression of this issue from the post-war migrant wave that brought a significant number of Croatian nationalists to Australia, to the fall of the Liberal-led government in December 1972 amidst the worst outbreak of nationalistic Croatian violence in Australia. Thus-far this issue has never been considered in isolation in the Australian context, but significant efforts understand Croatian emigre violence have been made in recent years. Further, this thesis connects to diverse range of scholarship considering migration, security, political history, and terrorism studies. The historical record reveals that the Liberal Party was not active supporters of violent Croatian nationalists, but were rhetorically supportive, reluctant to concede that there was any problem, and consistently took light touch policy options that did little to dissuade violent Croatian nationalists in Australia. This conclusion is not only evident in the primary sources, but it is also the conclusion that the Liberal Party cabinet reached in the final weeks of its government.