The author, John Blaxland from the ANU, was given unprecedented access to previously sealed ASIO files for his research.

ASIO: The Protest Years, The Official History of ASIO 1963 – 1975, delves into controversy surrounding the sacking of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam in 1975.

The book says many conspiracy theories "bloomed and thrived" on a cable sent from the Australian embassy in Washington, after ASIO's senior officer was summoned by the CIA's Theodore 'Ted' Shackley on November 8, 1975.

The officer was told to pass on to ASIO headquarters the CIA's concerns about a possible change in bilateral intelligence arrangements, including whether it would "blow the lid off" installations in Australia such as Pine Gap.

"A key point the Senior Liaison Officer flagged in his cable was that in his view this message should be seen 'as an official demarche on a service to service link '," the book says.

"Journalists Brian Toohey, John Pilger and William Pinwill have claimed that [Secretary of the Department of Defence, Sir Arthur] Tange ensured that his Chief Defence Scientist, John Farrands, briefed the Governor-General [Sir John Kerr] by telephone on the 'security crisis' over the weekend of 8–9 November and that the dismissal was a result of this information.

"But years later, interviewed by the press, Farrands, Tange and Kerr categorically denied the assertion.

"Journalist Brian Toohey later reckoned that in light of wavering Liberal Party determination in mid-November to continue blocking supply in the Senate, 'the only serious purpose served by the commotion created by the CIA was to help Kerr make the decision that suddenly reversed the tide that was running Whitlam's way'.

"Also weighing on their minds, he argued, was 'that the agreement allowing Pine Gap to operate in Australia fell due for renewal on December 10, 1975'.

"The demarche was taken by public commentators to be 'a sort of prima facie evidence of US interference in the Whitlam Government'.

"Some claimed the US approach to ASIO for information on events in Australia was 'an understanding that ASIO had obligations of loyalty to [them] before its obligations to the Australian government'.

"There is no indication to that effect in the ASIO records ... The cable relayed a message that was explicit and disconcerting, but not underhanded."

The book's final chapter says questions remain about the dismissal of the Whitlam Government.

"These questions fall outside ASIO's remit and are largely political," it says.

"This chapter presents as clear a picture of what actually transpired as possible from the ASIO records.

"That picture, while troubling, is not nearly as controversial as some of the deepest conspiracy theorists would like to believe."

Dr Blaxland said on Friday:

"It's an untold story about Australia through the secret prism of ASIO. It's extraordinary, unheralded."

When ACT MP Kep Enderby became Attorney-General in February 1975 following the appointment of Lionel Murphy to the High Court, he asked whether he could call for an ASIO file on an individual.

"On 13 May, [ASIO Director-General Peter] Barbour provided him the list, together with brief notes of the reasons in each case," the book says.

"Jack Waterford, a journalist from The Canberra Times, later recalled that Enderby showed him the list."

In an obituary on Mr Enderby in January, Waterford wrote: "Kep once, while chatting to me, pushed over, silently, a report on ASIO's telephone tapping, under the hand of then Director-General Peter Barbour.

"It said only about five or six people were having their phones tapped by ASIO at any one time but commented that it thought state police were doing much more, illegally and without warrant."