Hawke rejected Reagan’s ‘Star Wars’ plea, declassified records reveal

Newly declassified records reveal Bob Hawke’s high-level talks with Ronald Reagan over his Strategic Defence Initiative.

Ronald Reagan at the White House with Bob Hawke.

Newly declassified records of Bob Hawke’s meeting with Ronald Reagan in February 1985 reveal that at a time of deepening Cold War tensions and fears of nuclear war, he pushed back on the president’s proposed “Star Wars” nuclear defence shield, arguing that it would likely be ineffective and could escalate the arms race.

Reagan’s Strategic Defence Initiative, known as Star Wars, imagined space-based lasers shooting down nuclear missiles launched by the USSR, and the US president sought to get Australia involved in its complex research and development program.

“Throughout history means had always been found for defence against offensive weapons,” Reagan told Hawke. “The intention was not to make the US more powerful but make the world safer.

“If such defence were practical, the US would seek to internationalise acceptance, and such a defence could make nuclear weapons obsolete.

“There was no guarantee that the research will produce a fully effective shield. But even if only a limited defence were possible, it would contribute to stability because it would give rise to question in the minds of an enemy contemplating a nuclear strike of just how many would get through … there should be no concern or suspicion that the US was seeking through SDI a first strike capability.”

These documents, declassified by the National Archives of Australia at the request of The Weekend Australian, show that Hawke emphasised his commitment to disarmament and told Reagan that while he valued the ANZUS alliance, and criticised New Zealand banning US ships from docking at its ports, Australia would not be part of the SDI.

“As behoved the nature of our relationship, he wanted to speak frankly about some aspects of Australia’s doubts on SDI,” the meeting record notes Hawke said.

“While reiterating that he accepted the integrity of the US purpose, there were question marks about SDI. One significant problem was the unlikelihood of ever achieving a 100 per cent certain defence against nuclear attack. In these circumstances would it not invite renewed efforts on the part of opponents to increase their nuclear offence capacity so that a sufficient number would get through any defence?”

Bob Hawke and Ronald Reagan at the White House in 1983.

Reagan officials conceded British prime minister Margaret Thatcher had also conveyed concern that SDI could be “an incentive to build up offensive capacity”.

The Weekend Australian can further reveal that diplomatic files show foreign minister Bill Hayden told diplomats the joint Australia-US defence facilities “would be priority targets in a nuclear war” and he doubted the commitment of the US and USSR to disarmament.

He labelled the SDI “stupid” and said the Reagan administration was too “reactionary”. He told his department “the price of keeping on side with the Americans on this issue might be too high” and Australia should take “a much firmer stand” on disarmament.

Hawke’s meetings at The White House took place after the MX-Missile controversy. Hawke had renewed a commitment of the Fraser government to monitor the testing of the intercontinental ballistic missile, but after backlash in Australia, he used his friendship with secretary of state George Shultz to drop the commitment.

Shortly before his death in May 2019, Hawke told this writer of his relationship with Reagan: “I said to (him) I would be supportive of the alliance but there would be occasions when I disagreed and I would talk to him about those.”

Reagan wrote in his diary after meeting Hawke that he was “a good man”.

Labor had been elected in March 1983 on a commitment to advocate nuclear disarmament in international forums. The Hawke government helped establish a South Pacific Nuclear Free Zone, supported the Chemical Weapons Convention and the proposed Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and appointed an ambassador for disarmament.

Troy Bramston is the author of Bob Hawke: Demons and Destiny (Penguin Random House)