Harold Edward Holt, CH (5 August 1908 – 17 December 1967) was an Australian politician who became the 17th Prime Minister of Australia in 1966. His term as Prime Minister was brought to an early and dramatic end in December of the following year when he disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria, and was presumed drowned.
Holt spent thirty-two years in Parliament, including many years as a senior Cabinet Minister, but was ...
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Harold Edward Holt, CH (5 August 1908 – 17 December 1967) was an Australian politician who became the 17th Prime Minister of Australia in 1966. His term as Prime Minister was brought to an early and dramatic end in December of the following year when he disappeared while swimming at Cheviot Beach near Portsea, Victoria, and was presumed drowned.
Holt spent thirty-two years in Parliament, including many years as a senior Cabinet Minister, but was Prime Minister for only 22 months. This necessarily limited his personal and political impact, especially when compared to his immediate predecessor Sir Robert Menzies, who was Prime Minister for a total of 18 years.
Today, Holt is mainly remembered for his controversial role in expanding Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War, for his famous "All the way with LBJ" quote, and for the sensational circumstances of his death. In the opinion of his biographer Tom Frame, these have tended to obscure the many achievements of Holt's long and...
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