Commentary
It’s 1985, and somewhere in the calm waters of South-East Asia, an Australian submarine slips beneath the surface on a moonless night. Its presence and disappearance go unnoticed as it was business as usual for the world on both sides of the iron curtain.
Upon reflection, it was a time of peace and certainty. The world order was crystal clear. At that time, Australia had not been at war since withdrawing from Vietnam, so the Cold War era post-1973 can be seen as a relatively stable period in Australia’s military history.
This all changed within a snapshot of time after the Berlin wall was reduced to rubble in 1989. The Cold War was over, but a new threat emerged in the Middle East, and Australia was once again at war on foreign soil.
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