‘In my file, I am two different people’: Max Gluckman and A.L. Epstein, the Australian National University, and Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, 1958–60

Security services in the Cold War introduced an ethos of secrecy, where state persecution of academics without due process could be justified by the imputation of communism. Australian security services viewed the work of social anthropologists as providing a perfect cover for subversive activities among undeveloped peoples. This applied especially to anthropologists seeking to conduct research in the Australian colony of Papua New Guinea. Australian security services surveillance of suspected subversives was assisted by information from MI5 and security services in the African colonies