'The biography of the man who, for over twenty-five years, was arguably Australia's most significant public servant, serving every prime minister, Liberal and Labor, from Ben Chifley to Malcolm Fraser. Tange defined Australian foreign affairs and defence policy for over 25 years and this sheds new light on many of Australia's political crises including the downfall of John Gorton as PM, the fault line in Australian-US relationships during the Whitlam government and the deaths of the Balibo Five in East Timor. It also illuminates many of the triumphs and disasters of Australia's international relations, from the Bretton Woods conference and the Colombo Plan of the 1940s, through the ANZUS Treaty negotiations, the Petrov Affair and the Suez crisis in the 1950s, Australia's involvement in Indonesian confrontation and the Vietnam War in the 1960s, and the change from forward defence to the defence of Australia in the 1970s. By examining Tange's personal papers and Defence documents not released to the public at the time of writing, Peter Edwards reveals much that was hidden from view during political and diplomatic crises, including a nearly fatal rift in the alliance with the United States.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.