New Monographs
From Traveller to Traitor: The Life of Wilfred Burchett
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From Traveller to Traitor: The Life of Wilfred Burchett is available as both an e-book (downloadable PDF files) or a d-book (print-on-demand). Both versions are available for online purchase at the MUP e-store.

From Traveller to Traitor is the first critical biography of the radical Australian journalist, Wilfred Burchett. After a distinguished wartime career with the London Daily Express, Burchett’s journalism drifted to the left with the onset of the Cold War.

During the Korean and Vietnam wars he was condemned as a traitor for his pro-Communist reports, and was unjustly denied an Australian passport by successive Liberal governments of the 1950s and 1960s.

Tom Heenan explores the truth behind Burchett’s reports from his travels on the other side of the ideological divide. He details for the first time the insubstantial nature of the allegations of treachery made against Burchett.

As Heenan reveals, Burchett numbered among the finest journalists of the twentieth century. He was an extraordinary Australian whose story is one of the greatest political scandals in this country's history.

Chapter Synopses

  

Introduction

The Introduction to From Traveller to Traitor is available as a free download.

The book opens with a discussion of how Burchett’s life has been written by both his supporters and critics. From Traveller to Traitor removes the ideological blinkers that have clouded the debate over whether Burchett was indeed a traitor or merely a radical journalist reporting from the communist side of the ideological divide.

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Bibliography

The Bibliography for From Traveller to Traitor is available as a free download.

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Index

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Chapter 1: Beginnings

This chapter sketches Burchett’s pioneering heritage, his childhood years in Poowong and Ballarat, his early travels during the Depression, and his initial foray into journalism in pre-War Europe and French New Caledonia.

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Chapter 2: The Road

'The Road' covers Burchett's early days as an ambitious and 'gung-ho' foreign correspondent with the London Daily Express, covering the Sino-Japanese War and the British rout in Burma.

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Chapter 3: Falling Out

Spanning the period from 1943 to 1949, ‘Falling Out’ details Burchett’s deepening disillusionment with post-war US foreign policy, and his increasing enthusiasm for the Soviet-brokered People’s Democracies of Eastern Europe.

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Chapter 4: The Word as a Weapon

By the early 1950s Burchett had come to see the word as a Cold War weapon. This chapter explores how Burchett used his words to uncover some of the more questionable aspects of the US-led United Nations Forces during the Korea War, including the alleged deployment of bacteriological warfare by the US Air Force.

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Chapter 5: The Traitor

‘The Traitor’ uncovers the Menzies Government’s unsuccessful attempt to prosecute Burchett for treason because of his alleged activities in Korea, and subsequent efforts to bar him and his family from Australia.

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Chapter 6: Frontiers

‘Frontiers’ plots Burchett’s attempts to resurrect his career in Moscow, his disillusionment with Soviet communism and life, and his quest for new journalistic frontiers in South East Asia.

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Chapter 7: A Journalist of Influence

Because of his reports from the communist side during the Vietnam War, Burchett became arguably the world’s most influential journalist. This chapter reveals how Burchett was courted by US and British diplomats to assist in their negotiations with Hanoi and the National Liberation Front.

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Chapter 8: Reclaiming the Birthright

‘Reclaiming the Birthright’ plots Burchett’s prolonged campaign for the reinstatement of his passport during the 1960s, and the determined efforts of Liberal coalition governments to block his return to Australia.

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Chapter 9: The Trial

‘The Trial’ details Burchett’s ill-conceived defamation suit against the former DLP senator, Jack Kane, and how this culminated in his ultimate exile from Australia.

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Chapter 10: Ruptures

‘Ruptures’ examines how Burchett’s conceptualization of a communist brotherhood in South East Asia unravels during the late 1970s, and how his critics in the west continued to tarnish his reputation through spreading rumours of his alleged KGB association.

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