Guide to the Papers of Thomas Bruce Millar

Series 1. Articles, lectures, talks and broadcasts, 1963-1994

The series contains manuscripts, typescripts, roneoed copies and occasionally newspaper cuttings of articles, lectures, talks, broadcasts, book reviews and other writings by Millar. They form a complete sequence from 1963 to 1984, but there is only a small number dating from his later years. There are a few letters attached to particular drafts, usually referring to a talk that Millar had given or some information that he was seeking. The correspondents include Admiral Sir Victor Smith (1975), Air Commodore R.D. Egerton, Ralph Harry (1992), Sir Arthur Tange (1992), T.K. Critchley (1992) and John Rowland (1992)

The topics covered by the writings include Australian defence and foreign policy, Australia and South East Asia, Vietnam, conscription, the foreign policies of the United States, Japan, the Soviet Union and China, the ANZUS Alliance, the strategic problems of the Indian and Pacific Oceans, naval strategy, nuclear proliferation, Kashmir, Somalia, international organizations, Commonwealth relations, Australian-British relations, Australian strategic objectives, human rights, South Africa, Federal elections, the Department of Foreign Affairs, conflict resolution, and the foreign policy of Alfred Deakin.

Series 2. Book reviews, 1963-1993

Although book reviews were filed with other writings by Millar, he also kept separate files of some reviews. They comprise manuscripts, typescripts and newspaper cuttings. They have been arranged by year. Most of the reviews were written by Millar, but there are also reviews of some books by Millar. A few letters to or from editors are attached to some reviews.

Series 3. Australian National University, 1960-1984

Millar was appointed a Fellow in the Department of International Relations at the Australian National University in 1962. He became a Professorial Fellow in 1968 and held this position until 1990, although in the last five years he was on secondment to the University of London. He was the first Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (1966-71) and returned to that position in 1982-84.

The papers include correspondence, job applications, notes, addresses, reports on overseas visits, notes of interviews, submissions, newspaper cuttings, photocopies of articles and publications. The papers deal with Millar's appointment as a Fellow (1964), a dispute over an article in Broadside (1969), his secondment to the Department of Foreign Affairs (1979), a proposed Peace Research Institute, his resignation as Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (1984), his work in the Department of International Relations, overseas trips and job applications.

Correspondents include Sir John Crawford, Richard Boyer, R. Gerard Ward, D.A. Low, Sir Keith Waller, Malcolm Fraser, Sir Garfield Barwick and Harold Weir. Copies of many of Millar's own letters are included. There is a substantial correspondence between Millar and Robert O'Neill, who succeeded Millar as Head of the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre in 1971 and became Director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London in 1982.

Series 4. Australian Institute of International Affairs, 1969-1980

Millar was appointed Director of the Australian Institute of International Affairs in 1969 in succession to Sir Alan Watt. It was a part-time position and he continued to spend most of his time at the Australian National University. He resigned in 1976. The papers deal with Millar's appointment as Director, the visit of Lord Trevelyan to Australia (1971), the 'Third Monday' Dinner Group and lectures. There are notes by Millar of interviews with political leaders in Indonesia, India and Britain, including Indira Ghandi and Edward Heath. Most of the papers comprise correspondence and research material assembled by Millar when he was writing an article on Institutes of International Affairs in various Commonwealth countries. The article was published in the International Journal in 1979. As well as the typescript of the article, there are copies of papers on Institutes in Pakistan, Nigeria and South Africa and a thesis by Carter Manny, 'The Canadian Institute of International Affairs, 1928-39' (Harvard University, 1971).

Correspondents include Gordon Greenwood, Ralph Harry, Sir Paul Hasluck, Norman Harper, W.L. Holland, Andrew Schonfield, C.E. Carrington, Robert W. Redford, John W. Holmes, I.J. Bahadur Singh, T. Aguiyi-Iransi, Siri K. Gupta and S.L. Poplai.

The National Library holds the records of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, 1933-85 (MS 2821).

Series 5. Intelligence and security, 1963-1986

Millar had a lifelong interest in security issues and during his years in Canberra he had close contacts with officials in the Departments of Defence and Foreign Affairs and with officers in the armed services. The series contains copies of some official British, Canadian, New Zealand and Australian reports on security. There are letters, cuttings and draft submissions by Millar to the 1974-1975 Royal Commission on Intelligence and Security, headed by Justice Robert Hope. Millar also took an interest in the Communist journalist Wilfred Burchett and kept copies of official hearings, newspaper articles and letters referring to Burchett and especially his activities in North Korea in 1950-1953.

The correspondents include Lord Gore-Booth, Sir Maurice Oldfield and G.M. Brownbill.

Series 6. Diaries of R.G. Casey, 1969-1972

In 1969 Lord Casey sought the help of Sir Alan Watt in preparing a publication based on the diaries that Casey had kept during his long term as Minister for External Affairs (1951-1960). Watt had other commitments and Millar then agreed to take on the task of editing the diaries. They were published under the title Australian Foreign Minister by Collins in 1972.

The series mostly comprises the extensive correspondence between Casey, Millar and Philip Ziegler of William Collins & Sons. The final file also contains reviews of the book.

Series 7. Citizen Military Forces, 1973-1976

In April 1973 the Minister of Defence, Lance Barnard, announced that Millar would head a Committee of Inquiry into the future of the Citizen Military Forces. The other members were Major General Kenneth Green, Major General Donald Dunstan, Colonel Lionel Simpson, Wilfred Jarvis and Graham O'Loughlin. The Committee's report was tabled in Parliament in April 1974 and recommended that the name of the CMF be changed to Army Reserve and that it be more closely integrated with the Regular Army. In June 1974 the Committee prepared a report on the Army Cadet Corps.

The series contains correspondence, progress reports to the Minister, comments by the Army on the report, newspaper cuttings, press releases, handwritten notes by Millar, criticisms of the report and actions taken by the Army to implement the report. The correspondents include Lance Barnard, Lionel Simpson, Wilfred Jarvis, Kenneth Green, Sir John Wilton, Sir David Hay, General John Macdonald and Admiral Sir Victor Smith.

Series 8. Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies, 1985-1990

In August 1985 Millar succeeded Geoffrey Bolton as the second Director of the Australian Studies Centre at the University of London. It was based at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at Russell Square. The Centre was funded by the Australian Government, but the funds were withdrawn in 1988. Sir Zelman Cowen and Millar sought alternative funding and eventually obtained it from the Sir Robert Menzies Memorial Foundation. The name of the Centre was changed to the Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies.

This small series consists mostly of correspondence dating from Millar's first three years at the Centre. It includes business correspondence, especially in his first months in London, letters from Australian students in England, and correspondence with academics in Britain, Australia and other countries. The correspondents include D.A. Low, Geoffrey Bolton, Coral Bell, Sir Keith Hancock, J.D.B. Miller, Michael McKinley, Leslie Downer, David Dilks, John M. Ward and James Piscatori. There is also a report by Millar to the Menzies Foundation written in October 1990 after he had completed his five year term.

Series 9. London School of Economics, 1990-1994

In October 1990, following his retirement from the Australian National University and the Australian Studies Centre, Millar became a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for International Relations at the London School of Economics.

Millar kept a file of general correspondence and also files on various research centres and associations with which he was involved. Apart from letters and his reports to the Director of the Centre, the files include job applications, administrative papers, leaflets, flyers and reports. The correspondents include Claud Morris, David Horner, Richard Clutterbuck, Don Dunstan, Peter Boyce, James Walter, Richard Nile and Helen Phippard.

In 1991 Millar prepared a synopsis for a book entitled "The strategic balance and the prospects for peace', which he submitted to various publishers. A contract was signed with Harper Collins and Millar spent much of 1992 working on the book. However, by the end of the year he felt in an impasse, on account of the volatile nature of world politics, and turned to writing a book on international peacekeeping after the Cold War. As part of this study, he gave a paper on the costs of peacekeeping at the British International Studies Association Conference in December 1993. Apart from correspondence with publishers, there are drafts of chapters for both books, copies of articles on related subjects, papers resented to conferences in 1993, and a group of United Nations documents.

Some files in this series overlap with Series 10.

Series 10. King's College, London, 1993-1994

Millar's Fellowship at the London School of Economics ended in the summer of 1993. He then took up a Visiting Professorship at the Department of War Studies at King's College, London. Illness curtailed his work in his last months, but he continued to do research on United Nations peacekeeping and in February and March 1994 visited Brussels and Vienna.

The papers in this series overlap with files in the previous series. They comprise copies of Millar's letters to the Leverhulme Trust and Australian diplomats in Europe and circulars and conference papers.

Series 11. Diaries, 1963-1992

The series comprises appointment diaries, with brief entries, for all years between 1963 and 1992, with the exception of 1964, 1967, 1977 and 1990. There is also a typescript of a very detailed diary that Millar kept between August and November 1971.

Series 12. Personal documents, 1948-1994

Most of the papers in this series are photocopies, the originals having been retained by the Millar Family. They include the beginnings of an autobiography, which Millar started to write near the end of his life. There are also various articles and stories, often written under pseudonyms, poems, and copies of a letter and photograph of the conferral of the Order of Australia in 1983. The original documents consist of several notebooks and a soldier's paybook.

Series 13. Publications and reprints, 1959-1985

The final series consists of a large number of journals and publications containing articles by Millar and also some reprints. They include some writings which were not attributed. A few of his later articles or conference papers can be found in Series 9.

The series also contains some card indexes to Millar's writings.