Americans Amok in Australia! Trivia Quiz

Answer: Lyndon Baines Johnson

At the time of writing this quiz, these were the only Presidents to have lobbed onto our fair shores. Johnson was (logically) the first to visit, attending in October 1966 for a state visit; he met with Governor General Casey and Prime Minister Harold Holt. The Vietnam War would have been high on his agenda, and that of Holt. In July of that year in Washington, Holt had supported Australia's part in the war by recycling the Democratic Party slogan "All the way with LBJ".

Johnson returned in December of 1967 to attend the funeral of Holt. Holt had gone swimming - alone - in raging surf - near Portsea, in Victoria. His body was never recovered. Innuendo continues to this day that he was kidnapped in a Chinese midget submarine etc etc blah blah. My preferred theory is that he fell victim to a blatant act of stupidity.

24 years later (December 1991 - January 1992) saw the visit of George Bush. He met with Prime Minister Paul Keating and addressed the Australian Parliament. Then he left.

In November 1996, Bill Clinton arrived on a State visit. He addressed a joint meeting of Parliament and visited the Great Barrier Reef to partake of some deep sea fishing (one suspects that was his real reason for visiting, it would have been mine, and I don't even like fishing). Then he left, with some fish.

Then, in October 2003, George W. Bush showed up in Canberra, met with Prime Minister John Howard and addressed Parliament. Then he left again. Not unlike Douglas MacArthur, however, he did return! He showed up again in September 2007 for the APEC Summit. Prime Minister Howard attended the National Rugby League awards dinner rather than meet him at the airport. Bush did a lot of talking at APEC, and waving at people (on the streets, not at APEC itself, unless he was trying to get their attention, perhaps). Like all those before him, he left again.

Result:
Stately Americans.
Reverent, sliding through to indifferent, Australians.

Answer: Pine Gap

Referred to locally as simply "Pine Gap", one of the non-secret things that happens there is satellite tracking. Who knows what else goes on there? No-one is saying! A joint operation with Australia's military, most of the American staff there are understood to be from the N.S.A. (National Security Agency) and the C.I.A. Allegedly, one of the facility's many functions is that it can identify microwave emissions, such as long distance telephone calls. (Oh my God! The Yanks know that I called my cousin Bob in Oodnadatta last May, and that I talked to him about the fifth division prize I had won in Gold Lotto the week before).

Because of the secrecy surrounding Pine Gap, naturally, the desire for the populous to protest the fact that they don't know what they don't know, comes to the fore. For those willing enough to endure the trip into the middle of nowhere (there is a very good reason why 90% of the country's population lives within 50 kilometres of the coastline, it's called water, which sustains life), the occasional protest flares up. Usually, it is associated with America's (and as a result, Australia's) involvement in some conflict somewhere. The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are recent examples.

Result:
. "We're-not-actually-here (and anyone who says we are is a dirty liar!)" Americans.
. Indifferent Australians.

Here's an interesting tidbit I found when researching Pine Gap. In 1983 over 111 women claiming to be Karen Silkwood were arrested and released without charge after entering Pine Gap. They were part of the 1983 Women's Peace Camp.

Pine Gap gets a mention in the Midnight Oil song "Power and the Passion":

"I see buildings clothing the sky in paradise
Sydney, nights are warm
Daytime telly, blue rinse dawn
Dad's so bad he lives in the pub, it's all underarms and football clubs
Flat chat, Pine Gap, in every home a Big Mac
And no one goes outback, that's that
You take what you get, you get what you please
It's better to die on your feet than to live on your knees"

Answer: Execution

Private Edward Leonski arrived in Melbourne in February 1942 as part of the U.S. 52nd Signal Battalion. Between 3 May and 18 May 1942, Ivy McLeod, Pauline Thompson and Gladys Hosking were found murdered. The murders came to be known as the work of the "Brownout Strangler".

Circumstantial evidence, combined with the testimonies of a number of other Melbourne women who had survived attacks over the same time period, and his positive identification from a lineup by the survivors, saw Leonski charged with the crimes. He confessed to the murders and was sentenced to death in a court-martial hearing in July 1942. The execution papers were signed by General Douglas MacArthur.

Leonski was hanged at Pentridge Prison on 9 November 1942. A 1986 Australian movie, "Death of a Soldier", is based on Leonski's crimes. It stars James Coburn and Bill Hunter.

Result:
Strained Australian-American relationship.

Answer: General Douglas MacArthur

General of the Army, Douglas MacArthur, was the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA). The then Australian Prime Minister John Curtin had also put MacArthur in charge of the Australian military, as well as American troops and small contingents from other countries. In July 1942, MacArthur's headquarters was shifted to Brisbane.

He was thereafter based in the A.M.P. Insurance Society building and this lasted until November 1944. This building is now known as MacArthur Central, in reference to and remembrance of the man who occupied it for part of the war, and now contains the MacArthur Museum. MacArthur successfully campaigned for, and received, sufficient resources from the U.S. Government to aid his forces in their struggle against the Japanese in New Guinea. This was hugely appreciated by the country of Australia, who were well aware that both the British and U.S. Governments were primarily focused on the Nazi threat in Europe.

Result:
Hugely respected American.
Extremely appreciative Australians.

Tidbit: The author of this quiz works in the next block to MacArthur Central, and occasionally partakes of lunch there at another American institution, KFC! The logo of MacArthur Central is five stars, a reference to the man's rank. "MacArthur Park", the song immortalised by Richard Harris, is named after the park in Los Angeles, which in turn, is named after the General.

Major General Courtney Whitney served with MacArthur in Australia, Japan and Korea. Whitney published a biography of his commander, "MacArthur: His Rendezvous With History" in 1956.

Major General Charles Willoughby was MacArthur's Chief of Intelligence during most of WWII and the Korean War.

General George Patton served under MacArthur in peacetime activities as early as 1932.

Answer: He insulted a female journalist

Short version of a very long story: Frank arrives to perform a series of concerts in Australia. He announces that there will be no press conferences during the tour (not unusual for the man). The press takes this as a personal insult, one female reporter in particular badgers Sinatra to the point where he refers to reporters as "bums and parasites", and female reporters as "buck-and-a-half hookers".

Faces turn purple with rage! Apologies are requested and denied. Ol' Blue Eyes has never said sorry to anyone and is not going to start now. He soon discovers that Australia does not hold dear to his personal philosophy of say whatever you please and the rest be damned. The Trade Union movement rallies together and effectively blackbans his entourage from receiving any services. He cannot get food delivered, power to his hotel room, transport to and from his concert venue. Not that the last item is an issue, as the orchestra refuses to play anyway! His plane will not be refueled.

A truce is brokered between the then leader of the A.C.T.U. (Australian Council of Trade Unions), Bob Hawke, who was later to become Prime Minister. As part of the agreement, Sinatra promises to play a benefit concert and apologise. There is innuendo on the net that Sinatra's apology went along these lines : "I'd like to apologise to all the hookers in the audience for comparing them with members of the press". I have not been able to identify if that is truth or fiction, however, it would have provided him with a way of saving face.

Cranky Frankie the Yankee left Australia thereafter in a snit, vowing never to return to our fair land again (although I am sure he used a different descriptor).

Result:
Rude, indignant American.
Outraged Australians.

Postscript: Interestingly, Sinatra's sense of moral outrage and indignation had its limit. He agreed to return in 1988 to perform a one-off concert for one million dollars.

Answer: U.S. Army Personnel

Between 1941 and 1942, approximately 300,000 American troops were stationed in and around the City of Brisbane, as part of the Southwest Pacific Area defence. This occurred at a time when the population of Brisbane was the same figure. The inability of the city to cope with the sudden influx and consequential issues caused simmering resentment on the part of the Australian soldiers based in Brisbane at the same time:

Disparity in pay levels between the two nations' soldiers.
The Americans had smarter uniforms compared to the Australians.
Local shops and hotels favoured the better-paid Americans.
Americans pinched the Aussie girls (and sometimes wives) - and I don't mean pinched with fingers.
The Americans would caress females in public.

To quote http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-battles/ww2/battle-brisbane.htm:

"The other, and the major problem, was the rapidly developing gulf between the US and Australian forces. The Yanks had smart, tailored uniforms, were well paid and accordingly drew the bulk of female attention and they were mostly extremely well mannered and pleasant. In the eyes of the hostile Aussies running second on their own turf, the Yanks were "overpaid, oversexed and over here".

As will be seen elsewhere in this quiz, it all boiled over one fateful night...

Result:
Resented Americans.
Resentful Australians.

The Dream Team are, by most people's standards, overpaid. They may well be oversexed, who knows? They have never been over here (Australia). Van Halen may well be overpaid and oversexed, and they were over here, touring, in 1998. However, their tour passed without incident.

Lyndon Johnson and his Presidential entourage? Well, they certainly were 'over here' twice, in 1966 and again in 1967. Overpaid? It's a value judgement at best. Oversexed? Hard to imagine. I guess only the F.B.I or the C.I.A. would know for sure. And I suspect they're not going to tell.

Answer: They went missing whilst diving at the Great Barrier Reef

The Lonergans were on a world trip from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. On the day prior to Australia Day, 25 January, 1998, they booked a diving trip with the Outer Edge Dive Company. This company's name has now become synonymous in Australian folklore, but the reasons for its infamy have been hotly debated ever since that day.

For the two experienced divers, the final dive of the day's trip was some coral formations called Fish City at St. Crispin's Reef, sixty kilometres east of Cairns. When they resurfaced, they found the tour boat had disappeared. From there, a catalogue of unfortunate decisions sealed their fate. The main criticism of the Outer Edge Dive Company is that they did not perform a proper headcount prior to departure back to the mainland. It is a reasonable observation to suggest that, if they had, they would have noticed two people missing.

Upon the dive boat's return, a crew member noticed the Lonergan's bags, but assumed they had returned to their hostel without their belongings by mistake. At the same time, the hostel bus called the dive company, noting they were two passengers short (a salutory lesson for the dive company in customer care). Unfortunately, the assumption was made that they had found their way back to the hostel by different means, and no alarm was raised.

It was forty-eight hours before the dive company realised that their bag was still unclaimed. The hostel was called and it was then realised that they had not returned from their trip. A week-long search began for the missing couple, but no remains were found. St. Crispin's Reef was renowned for its tiger shark population ... Some of their diving gear did wash up kilometres away some time later.

Because the bodies have never been recovered, there remains the possibility that some other fate befell the couple. Suggestions of suicide and murder-suicide abound. There is also the concept that they may have staged their own disappearances. This is in part due to revelations about entries contained withing their diaries. Given that their bank accounts and insurance policies have not subsequently been touched or claimed upon, popular theory is that these scenarios have been concocted to deflect the blame from the faulty head count procedure of the dive company.

Result:
Two missing, presumed dead Americans.
Slightly intrigued, but mostly highly embarrassed, Australians.

Answer: The Battle of Brisbane

The Battle of Brisbane has its genesis in the "overpaid, oversexed, and over here" issue between the American and Australian troops in WWII. On 26 & 27 November 1942, the most intensive (at least in terms of numbers) hand to hand combat to occur on the Australian mainland happened on the streets of the Queensland capital. There had been disquiet (in Australian military circles) about the American M.P.'s fondness for overuse of batons when dealing with its own troops. The observation is made that similar use of batons in the Australian military would start a riot rather than quell it. On this occasion, that's just what happened.

In an ironic twist, considering the events of the two days, the initial dispute occurred when Australian troops took exception to the severe treatment being meted out to a drunk U.S. Serviceman. A group of Australians set upon the M.P. and handed out some summary justice. Other M.P.'s came to his aid. More Australians arrived. The Americans tried to barricade themselves in the P.X. - the one that the Australians were not allowed to enter at the best of times. The P.X. that had all the good stuff, at the cheap prices. It was rumble time. The M.P's acquired 12 gauge shotguns to defend their P.X.

During the course of the melee, a shotgun discharged three times. One of the blasts hit an Australian Private in the chest, and he died shortly after. Other Australians and at least one M.P. were injured. There is no record of the P.X.'s fate. We should assume its honour was defended.

The following day, gangs of Australian and American soldiers roamed the streets. I quote http://www.abc.net.au/dimensions/dimensions_in_time/Transcripts/s537916.htm because I think this site sums up the prevailing feeling best of all: "The next day, an angry Aussie mob referred any American soldier they could to the local hospital".

Result:
Beaten up Americans.
One dead, and other beaten up Australians.

The Battle of Midway occurred over four days in June 1942. It is considered a major turning point in the naval pacific war. The Japanese Navy lost four Aircraft Carriers, as opposed to the single loss of the American Navy.

The Battle of the Bulge was a major German offensive campaign that took place in the Ardenne Forest, Belgium, during WWII.

The Battle of Lang Park occurs in Brisbane, every time there is an Interstate Rugby League match between Queensland and New South Wales. It is a colloquialism that may well have its origins in "The Battle of Brisbane".

Answer: Herbert Hoover

Herbert Clark Hoover (1874 - 1964) was the thirty-first President of the United States (1929-1933). His Presidency could hardly have occurred at a worse time. He was elected in 1929 and the great depression struck in the same year. He was also hamstrung by the unpopularity of prohibition. He consequently got the boot four years later.

Prior to that, he was employed for approximately 20 years as a mining engineer and consultant. He worked for the United States Geological Survey in California prior to going to Australia in 1897. When in Australia, Hoover devised a method to use the recently developed froth flotation process to recover zinc that had up to that point been lost in the tailings when mining silver ore. This was in the town of Broken Hill. Perhaps not coincidentally, Broken Hill Propietary Ltd (BHP) is now one of the largest mining companies in the world.

Hoover is noted as a mining pioneer in the Kalgoorlie Miners Hall of Fame. In typically laid back Aussie style, his biography in that museum makes no mention whatsoever of his subsequent role as U.S. President!

Result:
Presidential, mining-savvy American.
Thankful Australians (even though none of us now know he was ever here!).

Answer: Tried to sneak human growth hormone into the country

Human growth hormones? Come on! This had to have been a trumped-up charge! I mean, look at the man's body, how could anyone ever suspect him of drug use? Hmmm, naughty Rambo! Michael Enzio Sylvester Stallone (that name in itself has the makings of a trivia question) arrived in Sydney on his "Rocky Balboa" movie promotional tour. In his luggage were 48 vials of Jintropin. Jintropin is banned under the Australian Customs Act. Stallone was charged with importing a prohibited substance.

In May 2007, he was convicted of importing restricted muscle-building hormones into Australia. He was fined $9,870 (Author's note: The amount of the fine is somewhat akin to attempting to knock down a building by throwing wet spaghetti at it ...). The maximum sentence allowable for his offence is a fine of $91,500 and five years in prison. Stallone's legal representatives tendered the following letter to the court. It said, in part:

"I made a terrible mistake. Not because I was attempting to deceive anyone but I was simply ignorant of your official rules and I wish to sincerely apologize to the court and the Australian community for my breach of Australian customs law. I have never supported the use of illegal drugs or engaged in any illegal activities in my entire life. I wish to express my deepest remorse and again apologize for my actions".

However, following that, as a warped sign of his eternal gratitude for the leniency of his sentence, Stallone consequently banned all Australian media from attending the Los Angeles premiere of the movie. That showed us. Oh well, it wouldn't have made sense locking Rambo up. After all, what cell could possibly hold Rambo?

Result:
Bad, naughty American!
Put-in-their-place Australians!