Papers of Sir Frank Cooper, 1953-1999, primarily relating to his service as Permanent Under Secretary of State, Northern Ireland Office, 1973-1976, as Permanent Under Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence, 1976-1982, and post retirement, 1983-1999. The papers include correspondence, articles, press cuttings, press releases, reports, speeches, interviews and conference papers on a variety of topics including: the Air Ministry in the 1950s and 1960s, including the Suez War and Operation MUSKETEER, 1956; the political situation in Northern Ireland, 1973-1976; the Falklands War, 1981-1982, particularly the reaction of the Ministry of Defence and of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and the sinking of the Argentinean cruiser BELGRANO; the Civil Service, including relationships with the Government, structural reorganisations, Parliamentary Committees and policy making; the Ministry of Defence, including the Defence budget, management policy and accountability, the civilian contribution to the MoD, the relationships between defence procurement, industry and the economy; wider defence issues including the relationships between Britain, Europe, America and NATO, the importance of research and development collaboration, arms sales, the Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI), the European aerospace industry, American protectionism and technology transfer; British nuclear weapons policy, nuclear deterrence and disarmament, ATBM (anti tactical ballistic missile) defences and the management of the Trident, Polaris and Chevaline projects; British and French maritime forces; and Westland Helicopters PLC, including correspondence from Cooper's time as Director (1982-1985) and parliamentary reports relating to the sale of the company. Also papers relating to projects and study groups including the Joint Study of European Cooperative Measures for Aeronautical Research and Technology (EUROMART), 1978-1991; the EUREKA research and development programme, 1985-1986; EUROGROUP, 1982; the Foundation for International Security, 1984-1990; the British Rocketry Oral History Project, 1997-1998; the Defence Study Group of the Institute for European Defence and Strategic Studies, 1988-1990; and the Institute for Defence Procurement Studies, 1989-1990. Photographs of the Chiefs of Staff Committee in session, 1965-1977 and the Falklands War, 1982, including Royal Marines progressing through Port Stanley, surrendering Argentinean soldiers and piles of surrendered Argentinean weapons. Prints Ulster Impressions by Joan Wanklyn, 1974, RAF Aldergrove by Ken Howard, 1975 and The Great White Whale by Ronald Dean, depicting the SS CANBERRA, 1982.

The Papers of John Foster Dulles and of Christian A Herter, 1953-1961 are microfilmed copies of minutes of telephone conversations, memoranda, reports, and correspondence between Dulles and Herter as US Secretary of State and Under Secretary of State respectively (1953-1959), and Herter as US Secretary of State (1959-1961), and White House staff members, Vice President Richard Milhous Nixon, Central Intelligence Agency Director Allen Welsh Dulles, members of the US Senate and House of Representatives, US armed forces personnel and US political lobbyists. Material included in the collection relates to the International Information Agency re-organisation, 1953; the Panama Canal Treaty, 1953; the Republic of China Mutual Defense Treaty, 1953; Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy and his quest for communist infiltrators in the US, 1953; the cease-fire in Korea and Prisoner of War exchanges, 1953; the coronation of HRH Queen Elizabeth II, 1953; Far Eastern and Asian policy; the treason trial of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, 1953; the Federal Bureau of Investigation clearance of African-Americans for government posts; the depreciating civil situation on Indochina; atomic agreements with Great Britain; the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO); the India/Kashmir Crisis, 1954; deteriorating Arab-Israeli relations, 1954-56; the US intervention into Guatemala, 1954; the French defeat in Indochina, 1954; the European Common Market; visit of Rt Hon Sir Anthony Eden to the US; the Suez Crisis, 1956; the Soviet invasion of Hungary, 1956; NATO and nuclear weapons; US stance on French and British colonialism; the testing of US satellite 'Vanguard' and the subsequent space race with the Soviet Union, 1957; the Mutual Security Program; American troops in Lebanon as part of a UN force, 1958; Vice President Richard Milhous Nixon and the political defence of US foreign policy. Correspondents include President Dwight David Eisenhower; Gen Juan Domingo Peron, president of Argentina; Senator Joseph Raymond McCarthy; Rt Hon Sir Winston (Leonard Spencer) Churchill; Marshal Josip Broz (Tito), Prime Minister of Yugoslavia; Shri Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India; Dr Konrad Adenauer, Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany; Gen Douglas MacArthur; Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr; Gamal Abdel Nasser, President of the Republic of Egypt; Special Assistant to the President Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller; Gen Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle, President of France; Rt Hon (Maurice) Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister of Great Britain; Generalissimo Chiang Kai-Shek, President of the Republic of China; Hussein ibn Talal, King of Jordan; Senator Lyndon Baines Johnson; Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party and Chairman of the Soviet Council of Ministers; David Ben-Gurion, Prime Minister of Israel; Fidel Castro, Prime Minister of Cuba.

Papers of Reginald Ruggles Gates, 1896-1969, including diaries and research notebooks, papers relating to Botanical Biology ; Gates' research files; photographs; appointment diaries; correspondence; papers relating to professional memberships and conference material; press cuttings and published articles on his research interests. Including diaries and research notebooks, 1906-1962. Papers relating to Botanical Biology , an unpublished work by Gates, including manuscript notes, statistics, photographs and plant seeds. Research files, including draft papers by Gates such as notes from publications, articles, lecture transcripts, lecture notes, chapters of books, book reviews and others. Also photographs, articles, tables of data on physical characteristics of various peoples, graphs and charts, press cuttings and correspondence, on a variety of subjects including botany, oenothera , ethnic groups, race, genetics, biology, anthropology and Gates' anthropological studies in Australia, Canada, Cuba, India, Japan, Mexico, New Guinea, Okinawa, South Africa and Taiwan. Photographs from Gates' travels to Algeria, the Amazon river, Andamanese Islands, Australia, California, Canada, Canadian Arctic, Cuba, England, Gibraltar, Italy, India, Japan, Kenya, Morocco, New Guinea, Russia, Sicily, South Africa, South Rhodesia, Spain, Swedish Lapland and Tunisia; photographs of plant life, particularly oenothera ; lecture slides; photographs used for publication in various books and articles by Gates; photographs of human and ape skulls and skeletons, photographs of people suffering from genetic diseases and personal photographs. Appointment diaries, 1921-1962. Personal and professional correspondence, including personal financial papers, 1903-1962. Papers relating to professional memberships and conference material, 1922-1962; press cuttings collected by Gates, 1915-1962 and printed material collected by Gates and his widow, 1928-1966, on subjects relating to his research including oenothera , botany, race, blood groups, physical anthropology, human biology, genetics, prehistoric man and population.

Memos of the Special Assistant for National Security Affairs: McGeorge Bundy to President Johnson, 1963-1966 are microfilmed copies of declassified memoranda relating primarily to American foreign policy, 1963-1966. The papers include Bundy's comments on the Alliance for Progress; atomic energy; the Atlantic Nuclear Force; European security; relations with the People's Republic of China; foreign assistance; the Vietnam War; the International Monetary Fund; the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO); the Test Ban Treaty; and the United Nations. Reels include specific mention of the assassination of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 29 Nov 1963; meetings with former President Dwight David Eisenhower, 9 Dec 1963; visit by French President Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle; interview with First Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party, Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, 5 Mar 1964; the French split with NATO; press attacks on Latin American policy, 25 Mar 1964; National Security Council meeting relating to Indochina, 15 May 1964, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) reports relating to the Cuban assassination of alleged agents, 3 Jun 1964; the civil crisis in the Congo, 1964; meeting with John Kenneth Galbraith, Paul M Warburg Professor of Economics, Harvard University, 15 Jul 1964; reports from the US ambassador to the Republic of Vietnam, Maxwell Taylor, 1964; statement on the Gulf of Tonkin Decision, 15 Aug 1964; correspondence with Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie relating to economic aid to Congo, 20 Aug 1964; the escalation of the Gulf of Tonkin 'incident', 18 Sep-6 Oct 1964; United Kingdom Arms Purchase Program, 26 Oct 1964; correspondence with British Prime Minister Rt Hon (James) Harold Wilson, Baron Wilson of Rievaulx; meeting with UN Secretary General U Thant concerning North Vietnamese aggression at the Gulf of Tonkin, 5 Aug 1964; meetings with CIA Director John McCone, Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, and Secretary of State Dean Rusk; the revolt in the Dominican Republic, 1965; the Warren Commission Report, 7 Jul 1965; and the Kashmir Crisis, 1965

Documents of the National Security Council, 1947-1985 are microfilmed copies of memoranda, policy papers, directives and records of actions undertaken by the US National Security Council, 1947-1985. Document material relates to US policy with respect to Japan, the Soviet Union, China, 1948-49; military assistance to non-communist nations, 1948-49; US policy on atomic warfare, 1948; the Berlin Blockade; the United Nations decision to introduce military forces to Palestine, 1948; US policy towards Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe, 1949; US courses of action with respect to the Republic of Korea, 1950-53; responsibilities of the Central Intelligence Agency with respect to guerrilla warfare, 1952; US policy and courses of action to counter possible Soviet or satellite action against Berlin, 1952; US objectives and actions to exploit the unrest in the Soviet satellite states, 1953; US courses of action with respect to Latin America, Iran and South Asia, 1953-85; covert operations, 1954-75; nuclear attack warning channel and procedures for civilians, 1955-65; the political implications of Afro-Asian military take-overs, 1959; US policy towards Cuba, 1959-60; US strategic nuclear forces capabilities, 1960-85; US military, political and psychological operations in South East Asia, 1961-74; US training objectives for counterinsurgency, 1962-85; the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks (SALT); US policy on arms transfers, 1975-85; the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; US policy towards Cuba and Central America, 1982; the US approach to the Strategic Arms Reduction Talks (START), 1982-85. Policy papers and progress reports relate to all European nations, the Soviet Union and its satellites, Canada, Latin America, Japan, The Middle East, the People's Republic of China, South East Asia, Angola, North Africa, 1947-1985.

Minutes of Meetings of the National Security Council, with Special Advisory Reports are microfilmed copies of meeting minutes and Special Advisory Reports undertaken by the US National Security Council, 1947-1960. Material in the collection relates to US strategic nuclear forces capabilities, 1947-60; US policy with respect to Japan, the Soviet Union, China, 1948-49; military assistance to non-communist nations, 1948-49; US policy on atomic warfare, 1948; the Berlin Blockade; the United Nations decision to introduce military forces to Palestine, 1948; US policy towards Soviet satellite states in Eastern Europe, 1949; US courses of action with respect to the Republic of Korea, 1950-1953; responsibilities of the Central Intelligence Agency with respect to guerrilla warfare, 1952; US policy and courses of action to counter possible Soviet or satellite action against Berlin, 1952; US objectives and actions to exploit the unrest in the Soviet satellite states, 1953; US courses of action with respect to Latin America, Iran and South Asia, 1953-85; covert operations, 1954-75; nuclear attack warning channel and procedures for civilians, 1955-65; the political implications of Afro-Asian military take-overs, 1959; and US policy towards Cuba, 1959-60. Special Advisory Reports concern Europe, the Soviet Union and its satellites, Latin America, Japan, The Middle East, the People's Republic of China, South East Asia, Angola, North Africa, 1947-1960.

Copies of papers relating to Col Sir (Charles) Geoffrey Vickers and of his brother 2nd Lt William Burnell Vickers, 184 Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery, killed in action, Western Front, 21 Jun 1917, including seven manuscript letters and four typescript copies of letters from William Burnell Vickers to his parents and to his brother, Jan 1916-Jun 1917, with two typescript copies of letters of sympathy from Regimental officers, Jun 1917; typescript extracts from William Burnell Vickers' diary relating to service on the Western Front, Nov 1915-Feb 1916 and Jul 1916. Three copies of photograph of (Charles) Geoffrey Vickers [1915]; sixty letters by Lt (Charles) Geoffrey Vickers, to his mother, father and brother, Western Front, Feb 1915-Feb 1917, including letters from hospital after being wounded in action, Battle of Loos, Oct 1915, and typescript copy of letter from Lt Col Arthur William Brewill, Commanding Officer, 1/7 (Robin Hood) Bn, The Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regt), Territorial Force, informing Vickers' father that Vickers had been recommended for the VC, 24 Oct 1915; nine letters by Vickers to his parents, France, Apr 1918-Jan 1919. Typescript copy of narrative diary detailing Geoffrey Charles Vickers' service on the Western Front, Feb-Oct 1915. Copy of printed report entitled 'Report by Colonel C G Vickers, VC, on his Mission to the British communities in certain American countries and in Portugal', including information relating to Venezuela, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Panama, Cuba and Portugal, 16 Dec 1940.