Great double act that almost wasn't Retaliation: Paul Keating, left, has described Bob Hawke as a "pathological narcissist." Photo: Wayne Ludbey The most productive double act in the history of the Labor Party might have been derailed before it even began, with fear that Bob Hawke would dump him as Labor's economic spokesman prompting the threat of "massive retaliation" from Paul Keating. Bob, you try and touch me ... as the treasurer, and I'm going to invoke the Harry Truman doctrine of massive retaliation, and I mean massive. Mr Keating says he took the threat of being replaced by Ralph Willis seriously enough to invoke the name of the American president who authorised the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Bob, you try and touch me ... as the treasurer, and I'm going to invoke the Harry Truman doctrine of massive retaliation, and I mean massive! Mr Keating recalls telling Mr Hawke. While the idea of turning to Mr Willis, a trained economist and a friend from his time at the ACTU, had appeal to Mr Hawke, he stuck with Mr Keating and they were soon, in Mr Keating's words, as "thick as thieves." The revelation is one of many new insights into the relationship to emerge in the second instalment of Keating, The Interviews on ABC television on Tuesday. While the second and third episodes include plenty that will infuriate the country's longest-serving Labor prime minister, including being called a "pathological narcissist," it is Mr Keating's description of his empathy for Mr Hawke when he finally tore him down that is likely to make the biggest impression. "I was very sad to see Bob go down in these terms," Mr Keating tells interviewer Kerry O'Brien. You might think that's strange, but you see there was a point of affection between Bob and me - you've got to know this. You're sitting in the caucus meeting, the other man is sitting defeated. This is a man you've worked with for 8½, nine years of your life, for which you have a lot of affection and regard. Tuesday's second episode opens with Mr Keating expressing his sorrow when another Labor leader was cut down: Bill Hayden being replaced by Mr Hawke. I wasn't thinking about my leadership ambitions. I was thinking about Bill losing his great shot at history," he insists. Mr Keating, who left school at the age of 14, concedes that he came to the treasurer's role with no clear view on how to approach the job. But I did understand one thing: power. I knew how to make, how to put the 240 volts, the four-fifteen cables together. One of the keys to success, he says, was to "find the best talent to have around you and never fear having talent around you." In stark contrast to the leadership tensions between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, which destroyed both of their careers and the last Labor government, the Hawke-Keating double act not only endured, but prospered through four parliaments and a swathe of economic reforms. For this, Mr Keating gives much of the credit to former ACTU secretary Bill Kelty. "You've got to be awfully dumb not to spot value and Bill was value plus," he declares. While he is expansive on the many low points in the relationship with Mr Hawke, Mr Keating maintains it survived for so long because they shared a common goal of a new model for the Australian economy. I would kick and shove and gouge, and he would sort of do the same. But nevertheless, both of us had our eye on the main chance, the greater public good of the place. There are also insights into Keating the parliamentary performer, who preferred long questions and approached them like an in-form Test batsman. You start seeing the balls coming in slow motion.