Insurgent Intellectual: Essays in Honour of Professor Desmond Ball

2. From the Beginning

2 FROM THE BEGINNING Robert O’Neill “You might want to think about the guy who wrote that”, said Hedley Bull as we sat together in his office just after my return from ten months study leave in the United Kingdom, in December 1973. Hedley was, of course, referring to Des Ball’s doctoral thesis. And the need to think about Des had arisen because in my absence the Defence Minister of the day, Lance Barnard, had awarded the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC) two non-tenured posts. We now needed to think hard about candidates for them, at Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow level. I did not know Des very well at all in 1973. In 1970, when I first came to the ANU, and he was finishing his Ph.D., we were on very different tracks. He was a young, free, radically inclined man who had been prominent in opposing Australia’s part in the Vietnam War. I was a decade older with thirteen years of service in the Australian Army behind me, including a year in Vietnam as an infantry officer, 1966–67. When Hedley asked me early in 1970 if I would take on the Headship of the Centre, my initial reaction was to refuse. By entering academia I was expressing a desire to be free and, if need be, to be critical of national foreign and defence policies. But in taking on responsibility for the Centre, which inevitably had some dealings with the Defence Department and the armed services, I would have to tread very carefully in order to sustain the From the Beginning  Centre’s existing relations without becoming too circumscribed by them. After talking Hedley’s offer over with my wife, Sally, that evening in early 1970, I changed my mind. It was probably going to cause some serious disappointment if I was to refuse to take the Centre on, and perhaps I could do the necessary balancing act and make a success of the responsibility. So I told Hedley next morning that I would accept the post. The die was cast — and it was an excellent outcome for me too in the longer term. But my first years as Centre head were a somewhat lonely experience. The air of student and collegial disapproval of the Centre’s existence was palpable on the ANU campus. We were going to get no breaks in terms of funding and new posts from the University, and in some ways I was always on the defensive. There was not a lot of specific criticism of the Centre or its activities, but there was enough to make me tread carefully and avoid provocation, especially at times of major student activism. Therefore those two new posts that Lance Barnard had offered the Centre were hugely important both to the Centre and to me personally. They meant company and a chance to show what an academic team could do with contentious policy issues. Thus it was particularly important that the first holders of those posts were outstanding researchers and writers. Once they were advertised Des applied at the Research Fellowship level, and after a review of the field of applicants, he was by far the strongest and was appointed. Peter Hastings, Foreign Editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, was appointed at the Senior Research Fellow level. What the Centre got in Des was a young scholar, still in his twenties, with a proven track record of high quality analysis in one of the central fields of international studies at that time — the strategic arms competition between the two super-powers. I was particularly keen that the Centre should have a capacity to speak on the international level and not be simply an Australian-focused organisation. Hedley had told me of Des’ capacity to engage with and gather very interesting information from senior defence analysts, both official and unofficial, in the United States. His thesis was proof of his skills in this direction. As well, Des’ dissent regarding the Vietnam War was not driven by an over-riding ideology. What mattered to Des was evidence and rigorous analysis of the relevant factors that a policy had to address. Through personal interaction with Des I quickly gained confidence that we could work together effectively. We took things gradually and, I think, developed a very open, confident and trusting relationship from 1974 onwards. 10 Robert O’Neill In one...