Items medium note

Series number

AWM267

Series title

The Official History of Australia's Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948-1975 - Medicine at war - Records of Brendan O'Keefe and F B Smith

Series contents range

1984 - Circa 1994

Extent

1.8m

Access conditions

Subject to the Australian Archives Act (1983)

Agency controlling

Australian War Memorial

Custodial Agency

Australian War Memorial

Function and provenance

In 1982, Professor Peter Edwards was appointed to produce the official history series on Australia's involvement in Southeast Asian conflicts from 1948 to 1975. This nine-volume series covers the longest period of any of the official histories and deals with the Malayan Emergency (1948-1960), the Indonesian-Malaysian Confrontation (1963-1966) and the Vietnam War (1962-1972).

In keeping with the previous official histories, this series covers Australian combat operations by all three services, as well as the areas of strategy, diplomacy, home front politics and society, and medical matters.

Parts I to III of this official history focus on medical aspects of the Southeast Asian conflicts, including diseases, casualty care and hospitals; part IV is dedicated to the use and effects of herbicides including “Agent Orange”.

Dr Brendan O'Keefe was selected to write the Medical volume of the official history. Dr O’Keefe was born and grew up in Sydney, and graduated from the universities of Sydney, NSW and New England with qualifications in health and history. As an historian he had already published volumes of medical, maritime, media and local history. As a clinician, he had already accumulated 10 years of medical practice, and worked on several studies of post-war health of Vietnam Veterans.

At the time of writing, the issue of Agent Orange was already a vibrant political issue. Agent Orange is a chemical defoliant developed by the Monsanto Corporation and sprayed by aircraft over large areas of jungle in Vietnam – to provide better sighting opportunities for counter insurgency aircraft. After Monsanto detected the presence of the carcinogen dioxin in their product, the program was wound back – but many ex-service personnel claimed a link between exposure to chemicals and subsequent cancers.

To document this section of the official history, the Editor selected Francis Barrymore Smith - Professor of History at Institute of Advanced Studies, ANU. A leading historian of social, political and medical issues in Britain and Australia, Smith had previously written about tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, and sexually transmitted diseases, but had previously specialised in the issues of the nineteenth century.

Part IV of the work has been the source of some controversy since publication (in 1994). Recognising this, and in light of newer information, the Memorial commissioned a new volume dealing with the Medical Legacies of the Vietnam War - Long Shadow: Australia's Vietnam veterans since the war / Peter Yule, foreward by General Sir Peter Cosgrove (published 2020)

This series contains notes and records created by O’Keefe and Smith during research and publishing of this volume of the official history.

Content

The series is divided into five sections, each with a distinct theme. Sections are labelled A through E.

Section A contains final drafts and illustrations during the preparation and editing of the book.

Section B comprises research material covering Agent Orange related matter. This includes handwritten notes, as well as photocopies of contemporary newspaper articles and academic papers.

B/2/1 is a set of Index cards containing annotated articles and extracts of material relating to Agent Orange. The card index represented a well-established method for researchers to record and organise material. This set of cards was used to group newspaper articles, book references and important quotes by topic, and would have been prepared by Dr Smith or his researcher for use in compiling section four of the work.

Section C contains all the preliminary drafts of the work, with extensive correctional notes and handwritten commentary.

Section D contains a significant amount of primary and secondary source material. These items include:

· Australian Government reports,

· Copies of, or extracts from Defence files and forms,

· Oral histories and interview notes,

· Reports from Non-Government Organisations, such as the Red Cross,

· Extracts from Hansard,

· Personal papers,

· Medical research papers on a range of topics,

· Submissions to the Agent Orange Royal Commission, and

· Unit histories.

Section E contains the final photographs and manuscripts submitted for publication.

System of arrangement and control

A three part alphanumeric control system has been imposed, featuring a letter as the primary section index. The control system runs as follows:

A/1/- Final Drafts and proofs

B/-/- Agent Orange related research

C/-/- Preliminary drafts and comments

D/1/- Notes and primary source material

E/1/- Final manuscript and photographs

Using the series

Each item in the series is recorded on the RecordSearch database which researchers can view on the internet. Further assistance in finding relevant information may be gained from related series of records (click on Series Links at the bottom of this page.)

Sources

AWM267 Dossier

Australia and the Vietnam War – “Agent Orange”, Department of Veteran’s Affairs website: http://vietnam-war.commemoration.gov.au/aftermath/agent-orange.php - (accessed 16 March 2016)