Chapter 3: War and Diplomacy

By 1939, Crawford's activism found expression during the conflict over the National Security Act, censorship, the ban on the Communist Party, the anti-interventionist policy, conscription, freedom of speech and the Prime Minister's Committee on War Morale. He would become one of Australia's most visible and embattled intellectuals. The Melbourne School of History had further implications as Crawford became concerned with the individual's moral response to the challenge of contemporary events. Amidst the political drama, it was a charmed era when Crawford managed to negotiate the challenges of creating a School, acquiring a public persona, mentoring young talent and completing the seminal text Ourselves and the Pacific. In 1942 Crawford embarked on what promised to be his most exciting appointment, as first Secretary to the first Australian Legation in Russia. As one of the few Australian intellectuals to spend any significant time in Stalinist Russia, the experience galvanised Crawford's political beliefs. During this two year period Crawford reported on American affluence and Stalinist Russia at the height of war and reported on the qualities and flaws of the contrasting systems. The reader also witnesses Crawford's hubris, ambition and generosity, which were played out in his complex relationships with Kathleen Fitzpatrick, Brian Fitzpatrick, Kenneth Bailey, Ian Milner, Herbert Evatt, Keith Officer and William Slater.