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.

Minutes of the Meetings of the National Security Council: First Supplement are microfilmed copies of minutes of meetings, official meeting files and supporting documentation, and detailed records relating to meeting of the National Security Council, 1947-1956. Document material relates to policies and procedures governing the National Security Council, 1947; initial directives to the Central Intelligence Agency, 1947; the US political position concerning Italy, Greece, China, and Palestine, 1947; US policy with respect to the Republic of Korea, 1948-53; conversations with the British in regard to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East, 1948; US position with respect to perceptions of Soviet-directed world communism, 1948-55; the dispatch of US B-29 bombers to Great Britain, 1948; US policy on atomic and nuclear warfare, 1948-55; possible Soviet interruptions to the Berlin air-lift, 1948; organisation under the Atlantic Pact and the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), 1949; the re- armament of the Federal Republic of West Germany, 1950; the position of the US with respect to Indochina, 1951-55; the death of Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin, President of the Soviet Council of Ministers and General Secretary, Communist Party of the Soviet Union, 1953; the Mutual Security Program, 1953; US objectives with respect to Indonesia, 1953; US objectives in the event of a general war with the Soviet bloc, 1954; overseas reaction to the Atomic Energy Commission, 1955; US policy towards the People's Republic of China, Formosa and the government of the Republic of China, 1955

The collection covers Pyman's career from 1937 until 1963 when he suffered a severe stroke which forced his retirement in 1964. The earliest papers date from Pyman's work with the Royal Tank Cadre in converting the 17/21 Lancers from a cavalry to an armoured regiment. There are also papers from Pyman's period as an instructor at the Staff College in Quetta, India, 1939-1941. Pyman was involved in the World War Two campaigns by the 8 Army in the Western Desert, in 1941 as General Staff Officer with 7 Armoured Div, 30 Corps and in 1942-1943 as Commander of the 3 Royal Tank Regiment, 10 Armoured Div, 30 Corps. The papers consist mostly of Pyman's assessments of lessons learned from the ongoing campaigns particularly with regard to tanks and armoured units. In 1944-1945 Pyman was Brigidier General Staff, 30 Corps, 2 Army in the Normandy landings and the invasion of Northern Europe, with particular responsibility for organisation and planning of the Rhine crossing and advance to the Baltic. This is reflected in the papers which largely consist of planning studies and reports for the operations involved, this section also contains maps used in the campaign. Pyman's next appointment was as Chief of General Staff, Allied Land Forces, South East Asia, 1945-1946 which is documented by a series of diaries which reflect the tasks faced by Pyman in this command including dealing with the build up of tension between newly liberated former colonies keen to assert their right for independence and the former colonial powers such as France and Netherlands. Pyman spent 1946-1949 as Chief of Staff, Middle East Land Forces and kept monthly diaries which form the bulk of this section of the collection. The diary entries and additional papers reflect the debate over policy in the Middle East in the British Government and Military command, they include detail on the British withdrawal from Greece, the problem of illegal Jewish immigrants and their internment in Cyprus, the end of the British mandate in Palestine and the the effect of this on relations between Britain with Egypt and the other Arab states and the subsequent Arab Israeli conflict. This section of the collection also contains correspondence between Pyman and Maj Gen Sir Miles Christopher Dempsey on personal matters and on the Middle East. There are also papers from Pyman's work at the Ministry of Supply as Director General of Fighting Vehicles, 1951-1953, Director of Weapons Development, War Office, 1955-1956 mostly brief diary entries and lecture texts. Pyman was also General Officer Commanding, British Army on the Rhine, 1953-1955 and General Officer Commanding, 1 British Corps, 1956-1958 and the papers relating to these commands consist mostly of lectures, reports and directives reflecting his interest in armoured divisions and training. There are some papers, mostly personal correspondence and press cuttings, from Pyman's final command as Commander-in-Chief Allied Forces Northern Europe in North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The collection also contains correspondence relating to Pyman's role as Colonel Commandant of the Royal Tank Regiment and The Royal Armoured Corps and a series of letters covering the reorganisation of the Berks and Westminster Dragoons, of which he was Honorary Colonel. The rest of the collection consists of diaries, correspondence, speeches, writings including the draft copy and papers relating to his autobiography, some preparatory work on a history of the 2 Army and reference works. The collection also includes the Boer War diaries and other papers of Col James Redmond Patrick Gordon who commanded the 1 Cavalry Bde of the South African Field Force 1900-1901 which were given to Pyman by a friend.

Always a Grenadier', a memoir covering his life and career, 1916-1968, notably his evacuation from Dunkirk, May 1940, his service with the Grenadier Guards in North Africa, 1942-1943 and 1950-1952, and Italy, 1943-1945, including the landings at Anzio, Jan 1944, and with the 1 Guards Parachute Bn, Palestine, 1946-1948, his involvement in the planning of the Queen Elizabeth II's Coronation, 1952-1953, his work as a member of the Planning Staff, NATO Standing Group, British Joint Services Mission, Washington DC, 1954-1956, his service in Germany, 1959-1961, as General Officer Commanding, London District, 1962-1965, including his involvement in the planning of Rt Hon Sir Winston (Leonard Spencer) Churchill's funeral, 1965, and as General Officer Commanding Berlin (British Sector), 1966-1968, privately printed by the Grenadier Guards in [1982].

Manuscript diaries, detailing his SOE training in Haifa, Palestine, Cairo, Egypt, his service as an instructor at the Allied Military Mission Commando School at Pendalophos, British relations with allied Greek partisan units, and SOE harassment and demolition activity prior to and during the German withdrawal from the Greek peninsula, 1943-1944; reports, mainly compiled byEvans as commander of the Vitsi sub-area, relating to intelligence, reconnaissance and demolition missions alongside Greek Ethnikos Laikos Apeleftherotikos Stratos (ELAS) units, the pro-German infiltration of West Macedonia, and the conduct of Operation NOAH'S ARK; papers relating to SOE commando missions, including notes detailing weapons, ammunition and supplies used; lists of alliedPolish, Czech and French participants in the Allied Military Mission, autumn 1943; papers relating to the construction of the SOE airfield at Grevena, 1944; list compiled by Evans concerning hostile Armenian, Italian, German and Greek forces, 1944; notes detailing the nominal roll of partisan forces in the Vitsi sub-area, 1944; papers relating to SOE and ELAS border assaults into Yugoslavia and Albania, 1944; papers detailing the splintering of relations between British and Greek forces in Greece, 1944; booklets of deciphered signals messages received and issued by the Vitsi sub-area station, relating to the movement of German forces and Yugoslavian partisans, under the command of Marshal Josip Broz (Tito), and the execution of Operation NOAH'S ARK, 1944; correspondence with Lt ColArthur Edmonds, Officer Commanding Area 1, West Macedonia, Lt Col Nicholas Geoffrey Lemprière Hammond, Officer Commanding Allied Military Mission, West Macedonia, and allied British, American and Greek soldiers, 1944; policy and procedure papers, including his official secrecy declaration, 1944; papers relating to SOE technical training, finances and supplies; papers, in Greek, relating to combined operations between the Allied Military Mission and ELAS 9 Div, including command and control agreements and messages from Gen Karayannis, commander ELAS 9 Div, relating to German movements in the Vitsi sub-area; official report, in Greek, from theGreek government, detailing the history of Greek partisan forces in Greece, 1940-1944; Greek propaganda leaflets and newspapers relating to Greek partisan activity in West Macedonia, and Ellinikos Dimokratikos Ethnikos Stratos (EDES) and ELAS power struggles, 1944; German divisional daily order concerning the psychological state of German occupation troops; personal correspondence from German 1 Mountain Div soldiers; papers relating to the proposed publication of an account of Evans's career in the SOE; papers relating to the publication of Hammond's article, 'The Allied Military Mission in Northwest Macedonia', Balkan Studies (Volume 32), 1993.