Secret Files: Fraser Okayed U.S.-Australia MX Missile Test

Former Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser and his cabinet had agreed with former U.S. President Ronald Reagan's proposal to test fire an intercontinental ballistic missile called MX from California to the Tasman Sea in 1981, according to secret files released by the National Archives of Australia on Sunday. The test firing never pushed through.

In a seeming admission to the information, Fraser told the Sunday Telegraph in an interview that he would have made a different decision if the proposal was made today.

"If it was in today's world I wouldn't have agreed to it," Fraser said, according to the U.K. paper. "The Cold War was still in progress. It was a different world. We've gotten far too close to the Americans."

According to the June 1981 secret files titled "United States Proposal Regarding Test Launch of MX Missiles" presented to the cabinet by then defence minister James Killen, the ministers agreed with Fraser in principle to the United States proposal and for the missile test launch to be kept under wraps from the Australian public to avoid influencing an upcoming elections and prevent protests.

The cabinet's decision was prompted by a request from Reagan for a specific date in 1984 for the two test launches of MX missiles, each of which was 20 times more powerful than the atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima, Japan at the end of World War II. At the time, the MX missiles were part of a U.S. defence programme to counter Russia's nuclear missiles.

The secret documents included a proposed announcement by Fraser to the Australian parliament informing the test launches. It reads: "I wish to inform the House that the Government has agreed to the US request and that two test launches will occur in January/February 1984. I would emphasise that the tests do not involve warheads as such and the missiles will not contain any nuclear material.

"The missile launch point is to be Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The flight path does not pass over the Australian mainland or Tasmania. The nearest point to the Australian mainland will be some 220 kilometres east of Cape Pillar in Tasmania."

According to the files, the test launches involved a U.S. ship that will survey the impact area six months prior to the test.
The test launches never happened and the succeeding government of former prime minister Bob Hawke withdrew support for the said test in 1985.