Robert Menzies was Prime Minister from 1949 to 1966. During this time, he maintained a consistently hard line against what he saw as the communist threat to Australia. Menzies' struggle against communism did not only involve membership of international alliances and military action overseas; it also involved actions taken inside Australia to attack home grown communism. By the late 1940's, it did appear to some that communism had become a threat inside Australia.