James Ford Cairns (1914 – 2003)

Prominent Australian politician, a former Deputy Prime Minister and Treasurer and Minister for Trade. The Leader of the anti-Vietnam war movement in Australia during the 60s and 70s.

James Ford Cairns (1914 – 2003)

What if he returned?

28 July 2020 thesumofpower 0

Jim Cairns’s biographer Paul Ormonde talks of family honour in keeping the father’s desertion secret and speculates on what might have happened had he come back to the family from the war.

James Ford Cairns (1914 – 2003)

Pride Before the Fall

28 July 2020 thesumofpower 0

Jim Cairns’s sureness of self enabled biographer Paul Ormonde to get unusually close to him, a relationship that tripped Cairns up when Ormonde discovered the true fate of Cairns’s father, shrouded for years in family […]

James Ford Cairns (1914 – 2003)

Missing Believed Killed

28 July 2020 thesumofpower 0

Jim Cairns confronts evidence that his father deserted and hands the military record to his biographer Paul Ormonde. Cairns tells Gough Whitlam in Parliament about the news and Whitlam is profoundly moved.

James Ford Cairns (1914 – 2003)

A Foolish Passionate Man

20 April 2018 thesumofpower 0

Biographer Paul Ormonde reflects on the title for his book on Jim Cairns – the inspirational leader of Australia’s anti-Vietnam war movement. Cairns, a controversial figure, rose to the position of Treasurer and Deputy Prime […]