It has been claimed that no one was hurt by the Petrov affair. This book tells another story. Among them was Bernice Morris, who draws on letters and ASIO documents to expose the devastating consequences of security services interventions. Writing of the 1950s, Bernice Morris observes: The victimization of progressives and the sustained attack on communists that took place at the time cannot be allowed to recur. And yet, in these times we face new laws again raised in the name of security. We can learn from a history denied, but barely past.
‘As a child of the 1950s, subject to the usual all-male political discourse, I began wondering what the women were doing, thinking and feeling. And here Bernice Morris tells us: specifically what it was like to be a victim of the Cold War in Australia. Bernice Morris’s account of their life is told with good humour, honesty and a remarkable lack of bitterness.’
Julie Copeland
‘This is a story of noble ideals and the price that was exacted for refusing to abandon them. With documents obtained from security records, Bernice Morris exposes the allegations which security fabricated to victimise her husband. She writes movingly of her own tribulations, and the sacrifices she made for husband and children. But her courage is renewed in small acts of kindness. With compassion and unflinching candour she shows the impact of world events on the intimacy of personal experience.’
Stuart Macintyre, Reader in History, University of Melbourne
