Dark Victory

Description

They put lives at risk. They twisted the law. They drew the military into the heart of an election campaign. They muzzled the press. They misused intelligence services, defied the United Nations, antagonised Indonesia and bribed poverty stricken Pacific States. They closed Australia to refugees - and won a mighty election victory. Dark Victory is the secret history of John Howard's campaign against boat people that began with the Tampa and ended ten extraordinary weeks later - after deaths and disappearances, violent confrontations in the Indian Ocean and international uproar - with the Australian people giving John Howard his third, most daring election victory. David Marr and Marian Wilkinson, two of the country's most accomplished investigative journalists, burrow deep into the ways of John Howard's Australia. They reveal a world of ruthlessly skilled politicians, timid bureaucrats, a cowed Opposition, outmanoeuvred top brass, subtle spin doctors - and the men and women arriving on rotten boats who found themselves ambushed at sea by an angry Australia. Dark Victory is a thrilling and provocative account of events that shatter many of the myths Australia has about itself and changed profoundly how Australia is seen in the eyes of the world.

Table of contents

1. Full up: August 23 to 262. Sea rescue: August 263. Australia v. the boat people4. Canberra scrambles: August 275. Pan Pan: August 286. Boarding party: August 297. Labor cornered: to August 318. Pacific Solution: August 30 & 319. The rule of law: August 29 to September 310. The thick grey line: September 3 to 1011. The shadow of the Twin Towers: September 11 to 1912. The voyage of the Manoora: September 3 to October 813. Launching the campaign: to October 814. Orders from the top: October 6 to 915. Truth overboard: October 9 to 1216. A military campaign: October 14 to 2317. The boat that sank: October 17 to 2818. The worst of times: October 23 to November 419. The navy leaks: November 4 to 820. The burning issue: November 8 & 921. Victory party: November 10AftermathNotesGlossary and abbreviationsAcknowledgementsIndex