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Holt, Johnson and the 1966 Federal Election. A Question of Causality
Author(s) -
Williams Paul D.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
australian journal of politics and history
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.123
H-Index - 23
eISSN - 1467-8497
pISSN - 0004-9522
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8497.00234
Subject(s) - victory , state (computer science) , government (linguistics) , politics , political science , causality (physics) , position (finance) , political economy , liberal party , public administration , economic history , law , history , sociology , economics , linguistics , philosophy , physics , finance , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science
US President Lyndon Johnson's state visit to Australia in October 1966, came at the pinnacle of support for Australia's military involvement in the Vietnam War. Johnson's visit also occurred just weeks before an election for the House of Representatives at which the ruling Liberal‐Country Party Coalition won its eighth successive, and largest victory. The proximity of these events has led many to argue that a causal relationship exists between the two. Advocates of this thesis, however, have failed to support their position with any evidence other than the anecdotal. Contrary to the assertions made by numerous political historians and observers of the period, this paper finds no evidence to support a thesis of causality. This paper argues that the Coalition's landslide victory in 1966 was both a rejection of the tired and lacklustre leadership of Labor's Arthur Calwell and a measure of the electorate's overwhelming support for Holt and his Government's policies of conscription and military involvement in Vietnam.