Soon after I joined The Canberra Times 54 years ago, as a copyboy, I was taken aside by a senior journalist and allocated a discreet, clandestine and confidential task which created an unlikely alliance with a considerable impact on my career.
Frank Cranston, a New Zealander who was a former and future chief of staff, was defence and aviation correspondent, who from time-to-time reported hot gossip from ASIO mates and was bylined "From a special correspondent". He was ferociously right-wing and, though I was a Vietnam protester and soon-to-be draft-dodger, an unlikely ally of mine (indeed a colleague, Bruce Juddery, once christened our friendship the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact).
