These books are about the American Empire and its influence, with the first taking Australia as its focal point. Kolko’s monumental study of Vietnam and its War, and the American role therein and elsewhere, doesn’t even mention Australia. Fair enough, for we were only one of the cosmetic effects employed by Washington to try to cover the hideous face of the War she was conducting.

Dennis Phillips, born in Alamosa, Colorado, but teaching American history and politics at Macquarie since 1972, paints a picture of a still decent, but woefully vulnerable Australia, drifting in a global sea starting to be too rough for it. One question he raises by implication, is whether we haven’t left it all too late to regain control. As to what to do about the situation he outlines and deplores, Phillips has little of particular use to say: this is not a criticism.