Spies and Sparrows : ASIO and the Cold War

1st edition stiff wrappers As New octavo x + 270pp., b/w plates, notes, bibliog., index, ASIO. By the 1950s its counterespionage activities were increasingly supplemented by attempts at countersubversion; identifying individuals and organisations suspected of activities that threatened national security. In doing so, it crossed the boundary from being a professional agency that collected, evaluated and transmitted intelligence, to a sometimes politicised but always shadowy presence, monitoring not just communists but also peace activists, scientists, academics, jouralists and writers. The human cost of ASIO's monitoring of domestic dissenters is difficult to measure.