The backroom boys : Alfred Conlon and Army's Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, 1942-46 / Graeme Sligo. Alfred Conlon and Army's Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, 1942-46

Collection type	Library
Author	Sligo, Graeme, author.;
Call Number	355.340994 S633
Document type	Monograph
Year	2013. 2012.
Pagination	xxx, 380 pages : illustrations, maps, portraits, photographs ; 24 cm.
Publisher	Big Sky Publishing, Big Sky Publishing,
Note	Includes bibliographical references (page 361-372) and index. The Backroom Boys is the remarkable, but little known, story of how a varied group of talented intellectuals, drafted into the Australian Army in the dark days of 1942, provided high-level policy advice to Australia's most senior soldier, General Blamey,and through him to the Government for the remainder of the war and beyond. This band of academics, lawyers and New Guinea patrol officers formed a unique military unit, the Directorate of Research and Civil Affairs, under the command of an eccentric and m asterful string-puller, Alf Conlon. The Directorate has been depicted as a haven for underemployed poets or meddlesome soldier-politicians. Based on wide-ranging research, this book reveals a fuller and more fascinating picture. The fierce conflicts in th e wartime bureaucracy between public servants and soldiers, in which the Directorate provided critical support to Blamey, went to the heart of military command, accountability and the profession of arms. The Directorate was a pioneer in developing approac hes to military government in areas liberated by the combat troops, as demonstrated by the Australian Army in New Guinea, and Borneo in 1945-46. It is an issue of enduring importance. Adult. Adult.
Place made	Newport, N.S.W. : Newport, NSW :

Abstract

Machine generated contents note: ch. 1 Alfred Conlon, and the Origins of a Research Directorate -- ch. 2 Personalities and the Pacific, Blamey and Conlon 1943-44 -- ch. 3 Post-Hostilities Planning for New Guinea and Papua: Background and Arguments for Ref orm -- ch. 4 Post-Hostilities Planning for New Guinea and Papua: the Directorate''s Lawyers, Anthropologists and Scientists -- ch. 5 Blamey, Florey, Conlon, Wright -- and ANU -- ch. 6 Civil Affairs and Military Government -- UK Theory and Practice -- ch. 7 1944-45: The Directorate at Home and Abroad -- ch. 8 The School of Civil Affairs: Duntroon and After -- ch. 9 Borneo: The `tangled skein'' -- ch. 10 Borneo: General Wootten and the British -- ch. 11 Japan, Disbandment and ASOPA -- ch. 12 Alumni and Assess ment.