Using History, Making British Policy: The Treasury and the Foreign Office, 1950–76 PDF
Preview Using History, Making British Policy: The Treasury and the Foreign Office, 1950–76
Using History, Making British Policy The Treasury and the Foreign Office, 1950–76 Peter J. Beck Using History, Making British Policy AlsobyPeterJ.Beck BRITISHDOCUMENTSONFOREIGNAFFAIRS.ReportsandPapersFromthe ForeignOfficeConfidentialPrints:TheLeagueofNations1918–1941,vols1–10 SCORINGFORBRITAIN:InternationalFootballandInternationalPolitics, 1900–1939 THEFALKLANDISLANDSASANINTERNATIONALPROBLEM THEINTERNATIONALPOLITICSOFANTARCTICA Using History, Making British Policy The Treasury and the Foreign Office, 1950–76 Peter J. Beck KingstonUniversity ©PeterJ.Beck2006 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2006 978-1-4039-4706-2 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noparagraphofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, 90TottenhamCourtRoad,LondonW1T4LP. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorisedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentified astheauthorofthisworkinaccordancewiththeCopyright, DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2006by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN Houndmills,Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XSand 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,N.Y.10010 Companiesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld PALGRAVEMACMILLANistheglobalacademicimprintofthePalgrave MacmillandivisionofSt.Martin’sPress,LLCandofPalgraveMacmillanLtd. Macmillan(cid:2)isaregisteredtrademarkintheUnitedStates,UnitedKingdom andothercountries.PalgraveisaregisteredtrademarkintheEuropean Unionandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-52409-9 ISBN 978-0-230-50128-7 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230501287 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Beck,Peter(PeterJ.) Usinghistory,makingBritishpolicy:theTreasuryandtheForeignOffice, 1950(cid:3)76/byPeterJ.Beck. p. cm. 1. GreatBritain“Politicsandgovernment“1945(cid:3) 2. GreatBritain Treasury“History“20thcentury. 3. GreatBritain“Economic policy“1945(cid:3)1964. 4. GreatBritain“Economicpolicy“1964(cid:3)1979. 5. GreatBritain.ForeignandCommonwealthOffice“History“ 20thcentury. 6. GreatBritain“Foreignrelations“1945(cid:3) 7. History“Philosophy. I. Title. DA589.7.B4332006 327.41009(cid:2)045“dc22 2006042324 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 15 14 13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 Contents ListofTablesandBoxes vii Preface viii Acknowledgements x ListofAbbreviations xi Part I Introduction: Using History in Britain 1 1 BritishPolicymakersandHistory 3 2 UsingOfficialHistoriesandPublicRecordstoPresent Britain’sPasttoaGlobalAudience 22 Part II Using History in the Treasury 51 3 TheTreasuryBecomes‘VeryHistoricallyMinded’,1957–60 53 4 PushingAheadwith“FundingExperience”,1960–62 72 5 The Public Enterprises Division (PE) as a Case Study, 1962–65 92 6 The‘NewStage’intheTreasury’sHistoricalWork,1965–68 118 7 RetuningtheTreasury’sHistoricalActivitiesafter Fulton,1968–70 143 8 MovingTowardstheClosureoftheTreasuryHistorical Section,1971–76 161 9 UsingHistoryintheTreasury 170 Part III Using History in the Foreign Office 191 10 TheForeignOffice’s1962AbadanHistory 193 11 UsingButler’sAbadanHistorytoReappraiseBritish ForeignPolicy 211 12 UsingHistoryintheForeignOffice 229 v vi Contents Part IV Conclusion 239 13 MakingBritishPolicy,UsingandIgnoringHistory 241 Appendix:TreasuryHistoricalMemoranda 252 Notes 253 SelectBibliography 292 Index 301 List of Tables and Boxes Tables 6.1 TheTreasury’shistoriansinthemid-1960s 123 6.2 ManaginghistoryintheTreasury,1965–70 124 6.3 Treasury histories awaiting divisional clearance, February1968 129 7.1 History,policyandprescriptioncharges 147 Boxes 1.1 JohnTosh’srationaleforstudyinghistory 6 9.1 TheTreasury’s“fundingexperience”outputs 171 9.2 PolicymakingstagesstudiedbyTreasuryhistories 175 10.1 ThelessonsofButler’shistory 203 vii Preface Thisbookdrawsuponmylongstandingresearchinterestinhistoryand governmentdatingbacktothelate1970swhenIbeganstudyingAnglo- Argentinerelations.ThisparticularprojectbeganwhenIcameacrossa fileonRohanButler’s1962Abadanhistorywhileworkinguponanother topic. As my first-ever publication, an article in the Journal of Contem- porary History (1974), centred upon an earlier Anglo-Iranian dispute, I read on. In 2004 research on Butler’s history provided the subject matter for my keynote lecture delivered to BISA’s British International History Group conference. Subsequently, this lecture was developed into an article for publication in the Historical Journal (2006). While preparing the lecture, I consulted Treasury files by way of providing a footnoteonthebroadercontext.However,itsoonbecameclearthatthe Treasury’shistoricalactivitieswarrantedfarmorethanamerefootnote. The resulting project has been supported by the Arts and Humanities ResearchCouncil’sStudyLeaveschemeandtheHistoryResearchGroup atKingstonUniversity. Apart from enhancing our knowledge and understanding about the role of history in the British policymaking process, this monograph offers informed insights regarding the nature and purpose of history, with particular reference to longstanding debates about our ability to learn from history. Reportedly, Samuel Taylor Coleridge asserted that ‘If men could learn from history, what lessons it might teach us! But passionandpartyblindoureyes,andthelightwhichexperiencegives us is a lantern on the stern, which shines only on the waves behind us!’.ThisbookilluminatesoneBritishattempttodirectthelightonthe bow. Invaluable oral and written testimony was provided by former Treasury officials: James Collier, Sir David Hancock, Guy Hartcup and Sir Douglas Wass. Treasury staff enabled access to files closed under the 30-Year Rule. My research has benefited from the assist- ance and constructive advice of Gillian Bennett, John Dickie, Sally Falk, Christopher Hill, Wm. Roger Louis, Steve Marsh, Zara Steiner, D.J. Thorpe and Chris Wrigley. George Peden and Michael Lee deserve viii Preface ix special praise for providing speedy informed commentaries on the whole manuscript. Likewise, the library staff at Kingston University, most notably Lyn Porteous and the interloans staff, proved extremely helpful.Asever,myfamilyprovidedasupportivehomeenvironment. PeterJ.Beck KingstonUniversity
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