Max F. Millikan papers

Max Franklin Millikan was born in Chicago on December 12, 1913, the son of Robert Andrews Millikan, the Nobel laureate in physics, and Greta (Blanchard) Millikan. He attended Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts, 1929-1931. In 1931 he entered the California Institute of Technology, where he remained for two years before transferring to Yale University in 1933. He received the B.S. in physics at Yale in 1935. For the next year he studied economics under J. N. Hicks at Cambridge University. Following his return to the United States in 1936, he began doctoral work in economics at Yale. His dissertation, "The Framework of a Theory of Producer's Sales Policy with Special Reference to Duopoly," explored aspects of the decision-making process in industry. He received the Ph.D. in 1941. While a graduate student, he married Jeanne MacBeath Thomson. The Millikans had three children: Jane Andrews (b. 1941), Nicholas Thomson (b. 1943), and Abigail (b. 1949).

Millikan served as instructor in economics at Yale, 1938-1941; assistant professor of economics, 1941-1942; and research associate (with rank of associate professor), 1942-1949. The latter appointment marked a shift in his career during World War II from straight teaching and research to greater involvement in the public sector. He took a leave of absence from Yale, 1942-1946, to work in Washington as a consultant and senior business specialist, Office of Price Administration, 1942; principal economist, War Shipping Administration, 1942-1944; assistant director, Division of Ship Requirements, War Shipping Administration, 1944-1946; and chief, Economic Intelligence Branch, Division of Research for Europe, January-June 1946. After his return to Yale in 1946, he continued to be active in government circles, serving as assistant secretary, President's Committee on Foreign Aid, 1947; transportation consultant, U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on Foreign Aid, 1947; and consultant, Economic Cooperation Administration, beginning in 1948. He also served on a number of advisory committees, including the Air Force's Human Resources Professional Advisory Committee. One of his major projects during this period was a broadly inter-disciplinary and inter-institutional study of national policy problems relating to income stabilization, employment, and ways in which the management of the public debt affects investment and the money market. The project involved participation by leaders in government, international relations, the academic world, and the banking industry in a series of seminars held at Yale University beginning in 1947. As organizer of the series, Millikan edited and compiled the seminar papers for publication under the title Income Stabilization in a Developing Democracy (Yale University Press, 1953).

In 1949 Millikan was appointed associate professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He took a leave of absence in 1951-1952 to serve as assistant director of the Central Intelligence Agency. On his return to MIT in 1952 he was promoted to professor of economics and appointed director of the Center for International Studies (CIS). The Center was a new MIT program begun as a follow-up to Project TROY—a study group (of which Millikan was a member) contracted by the Department of State in 1950 to explore international information and communication patterns, especially in and into the Soviet Union. The Center, established in January 1952, continued the contract work undertaken for the government under Project TROY and at the same time broadened its aim and function to include "research in the social sciences on international affairs [that] would contribute both to our basic understanding of human behavior and to the solution of some of the long-term problems of international policy which confront decision makers in government and private life." Millikan assumed the directorship on February 1, 1952, and continued in the post and as professor of economics at MIT until his death on December 14, 1969.

During his tenure at MIT, Millikan was a member of several Institute-wide committees, including the Committee on the Future of the Graduate School, the Faculty Committee on the Joint (Harvard-MIT) Center for Urban Studies, the Committee on the Social Sciences, the Centennial Conference Committee, and the Committee for the Compton Lectureship. As director of the CIS, he was instrumental in framing the Center's research program—with its focus on economic and political development, international communications, communism, and military and foreign policy—and in developing and maintaining the program with the support and collaboration of a number of private organizations and government agencies. The research undertaken by members of the Center involved contractual studies for government agencies and committees, notably the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; projects supported by grants from private foundations such as the Ford Foundation; collaborative studies with companies like General Electric; and discussion groups and other kinds of consultation with foundation officers and members of governments world-wide. Under Millikan the Center became a clearinghouse for a variety of information on foreign affairs. Though never the major focus, educational programs initiated under Millikan's direction included seminar and lecture series, undergraduate courses, and in 1962 a graduate program leading to advanced degrees in political science. Several MIT faculty members were involved in the work of the CIS. One of the most active was Walt Whitman Rostow, professor of economic history, who left MIT in 1961 to serve as national security affairs advisor to President Kennedy and chair of the policy planning council of the Department of State.

Millikan's outside professional activities included membership on a number of committees, boards, and panels, including the Universities Advisory Committee of the Economic Development Institute, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development; Social Science Panel, Scientific Advisory Board, U.S. Air Force; Board of Trustees, Volunteers for International Development; Slavic Visiting Committee, Harvard University; Professional Committee, Institute for Defense Analyses; Committee on Foreign Aid, President's Science Advisory Committee; Board of Directors, Hudson Institute; and Advisory Committee, International Relations Program, Rockefeller Foundation. He was a regular guest lecturer at the National War College and the Industrial College of the Armed Forces. He served as a consultant to the Transportation Division, Mutual Security Agency; Research Development Board, Department of Defense; and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy Planning, Department of State. He was president of the World Peace Foundation, 1956-1969, and trustee of the Carnegie Foundation for International Peace, 1964-1969.

Millikan held membership in several professional societies, including the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the American Economic Association (where he was also on the Committee on Research and Publication), the American Statistical Association, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Econometric Society, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, and the Royal Economic Society. He contributed to a wide range of scholarly journals and policy publications in the fields of economics and international relations. Among his major books were (with W. W. Rostow) A Proposal: Key to an Effective Foreign Policy, 1957; and (with D. L. M. Blackmer) The Emerging Nations: Their Growth and United States Policy, 1961.