In this special summer series of the Afternoon Light podcast you can enjoy the presentations delivered at our November 2024 conference entitled ‘The Final Chapter: Purpose, Endurance and Legacy 1961-66 and Beyond’. This third episode features Andrew Carr on 'The ADF Menzies Built', Tom Lewis's paper 'The Menzies defence legacy: wise, brave, and enduring' (begins at 20:20), and Lucas McLennan's paper on 'Australian anti-Communist organisations in the Vietnam War debate' (begins at 39:10).

Andrew Carr is a Senior Lecturer in the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre at the Australian National University. His research focuses on Strategy and Australian Defence Policy. He has published in outlets such as Survival, Parameters, Journal of Strategic Studies, Australian Foreign Affairs, International Theory, The Washington Quarterly, and Comparative Strategy. He has a sole authored book with Melbourne University Press and has edited books with Oxford University Press and Georgetown University Press. He is currently a member of the ANU-Defence Strategic Policy History Project, writing a history of Australian Defence White Papers from 1976-2020.

Tom Lewis OAM is a military historian, the author of 22 books, and a public speaker and presenter. He is a retired naval officer who served in combat as an Intelligence analyst; an ex-secondary school teacher, pilot, and scuba divemaster. He was the Director of Darwin Military Museum in its redevelopment from 2009 to 2013. His Order of Australia was bestowed on him for services to naval history. He has won numerous prizes for his literary works, the most recent being as the national winner of the 2021 Australian Naval Institute’s Commodore Sam Bateman Book Prize for Teddy Sheean VC. Tom is an expert on World War II, especially in the Pacific, but he has also written in areas analysing medieval combat, military aviation, and the reality of battlefield behaviour. His latest books are The Sinking of HMAS Sydney, which examined life on board WWII warships as well as the final fight between Sydney and Kormoran, and Cyclone Warriors –the Armed Forces in Cyclone Tracy.

Lucas McLennan works as a Senior History Teacher. He completed an Honours Degree in History and teaching qualifications at Monash University and recently completed a Master of Education from the University of Melbourne. His Masters thesis was on the Education policy of the first Anglican Bishop in Australia, William Grant Broughton, while his earlier Honours thesis examined Australia's compulsory military training schemes between Federation and the First World War. He has a strong interest in Australia's political, religious, and cultural history.