Book lifts the lid on ASIO’s ‘Secret Cold War’

The Cold War is on for young and old during this period. There is enough espionage and counter espionage around the suburbs of Canberra to make recent TV shows pale by comparison. A new book will give an insider's account of Australia's domestic spy agency ASIO (the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation) during one of the most tumultuous times in Australian history in the later stages of the Cold War. The book, The Secret Cold War: The Official History of ASIO, 1975-1989, is the final book in the three-part history of ASIO and covers an intense period in the history of security and intelligence. "The Cold War is on for young and old during this period. There is enough espionage and counter espionage around the suburbs of Canberra to make recent TV shows pale by comparison," said author Dr John Blaxland of The Australian National University (ANU) Strategic and Defence Studies Centre. "It's extraordinary how much is going on.