Maintaining the 'Australian Way of Life': President Johnson's 1966 visit and its implications for national culture.

Abstract

President Lyndon Johnson’s visit to Australia in October 1966 was the apogee of the Australian-American political alliance and coincided with the peak of Australian public support for the American war in Vietnam. It was also during this period that Americanisation in Australia intensified. This thesis utilises the Johnson visit as a lens onto Australia’s Cold War political relationships and cultural loyalties. I argue that Australians’ enthusiastic embrace of the president did not reflect either political or cultural subservience, and that Australian political and civic culture at this time remained essentially ‘British’.