Mr Watson’s letter lacks veracity.

I did not claim or assert that all of Whitlam’s decisions between 1972 and 1975 “ranked in importance” with Curtin’s decision to bring Australian Diggers home to defend Australia from the Japanese invasion. 

Mr Watson’s letter of instruction fails on this point.

He may be “irritated”, but that means nothing in the manner of proof. 

The great John Curtin kept Australia free, but Whitlam went outside the lethargy of Menzies and all those that came and went, to take Australia into a decent future. 

Whitlam was the fulcrum that leveraged Australia into a position of social improvement and advancement. 

Incidentally, on July 4, 1968, John Gorton said no further troops would go to Vietnam. On December 16, 1969, John Gorton announced a withdrawal of troops from Vietnam would start the next year. On September 18, 1970, a battalion of Diggers returning from Vietnam was not replaced by John Gorton. 

This was the start of troop withdrawal from Vietnam. 

Using words such as “epistolary”, “insouciant”, and “inexorably” is just talking down to people. They, by themselves, do not create truth.

The present government, led by Tony Abbott, has already shown that it is creating its own consequences. 

Past history has nothing to do with latent incompetence. 

However for all of that, Mr Watson’s letter will also fail because of the final admission of his bias – “It’s all rather typical of those from the trendy-left side of political debate”. 

Neil Forscutt

Willow Tree