The conspiracy theory is immortalised in pop culture by the [not very good band] Harold Holt and the Chinese Submarines.

Cheviot Beach was under military protection because it fell within the Point Nepean Military Area, which had bases and coast artillery installations, not because it had treacherous surf.

The extraordinary undertow activity they felt treacherously swirling round their feet and which ultimately put them off must’ve reminded Holt of precisely the political situation he was confronted by over Vietnam when he first became prime minister.

On the one hand he’d've had local and international siren voices politically agitating both for and against making the US cause Australia’s and on the other he’d've been all too aware how deeply resentful Australia’s own youth would feel being ordered to sacrifice themselves for a cause they had little or no love for yet clearly his approach to such hostile conditions was simply to gird his loins and wade unhesitatingly in.

None of which precludes the possibility someone having a deep understanding of his fundamental psychological reactions to encountering opposition could’ve engineered precisely a situation where his own innate macho stubbornness not to yield to the water would in effect cause him to ‘murder’ himself.

Remember even though he was the prime minister he still had to ask permission to access the beach, a beach so notorious for its treacherous sea conditions it was under military protection.

Yet in spite of him being a prime minister in his mid sixties, having a damaged shoulder and nearly drowning six months previously that permission was granted without any kind of safety or monitoring facilities apparently being put discretely in place.

Funnily enough in ancient times, particularly in Ancient Rome, whenever someone ‘drowned’ it was invariably instantly understood what’d really taken place.

The more things change, etc., etc.