Imperial Endgame: Britain's Dirty Wars and the End of Empire

502 Pages·2011·4.94 MB·English

by  Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon

Imperial Endgame
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BRITAIN AND THE WORLD
Edited by The British Scholar Society
Editors
James Onley, University of Exeter, UK
A. G. Hopkins, University of Texas at Austin
Gregory Barton, The Australian National University
Bryan Glass, University of Texas at Austin
Imperial Endgame: Britain’s Dirty Wars and the End of Empire is the fi rst book in the
Britain and the World series, edited by The British Scholar Society and published by
Palgrave Macmillan. From the sixteenth century onward, Britain’s infl uence on the
world became progressively profound and far-reaching, in time touching every conti-
nent and subject, from Africa to South America and archaeology to zoology. Although
the histories of Britain and the world became increasingly intertwined, mainstream
British history still neglects the world’s infl uence upon domestic developments and
British overseas history remains largely confi ned to the study of the British Empire.
This series takes a broader approach to British history, seeking to investigate the full
extent of the world’s infl uence on Britain and Britain’s infl uence on the world.
Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon’s book is a work of considerable insight, breadth, and
originality. It controversially argues that British decolonisation policy throughout
the empire in the 1940s and ’50s was carefully and intentionally orchestrated to
ensure that independence happened on British terms. The British government did
this by waging coordinated counterinsurgency campaigns to isolate insurgents
from the general population, by transferring power to those wishing to maintain
links with Britain and supporting them after independence, and by persuading
many former colonies to remain within a British and American sphere of infl uence
during the Cold War. This is not a story you have been told before. We hope you
will enjoy reading it as much as we did.
Forthcoming titles in the Britain and the World series include:
SCIENCE AND EMPIRE: KNOWLEDGE AND NETWORKS OF SCIENCE IN THE
BRITISH EMPIRE, 1850–1970
Brett Bennett and Joseph M. Hodge (eds)
MUSE OF EMPIRE: THE CLASSICS, BRITISH IMPERIALISM AND THE INDIAN
EMPIRE, 1784–1914
Christopher Hagerman
THE PAPER WAR: ANGLO-AMERICAN DEBATES ABOUT THE AMERICAN
REPUBLIC, 1800–1830
Joe Eaton
BRITISH IMAGES OF GERMANY: ADMIRATION, ANTAGONISM AND
AMBIVALENCE, 1860–1914
Richard Scully
Britain and the World
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–230–24650–8 hardcover
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–230–24651–5s paperback
(outside North America only)
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a stand-
ing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of diffi culty, write to us at the
address below with your name and address, the title of the series and one of the
ISBNs quoted above.
Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
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Imperial Endgame
Britain’s Dirty Wars and the End of Empire
Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon
Assistant Professor of History, University of Arkansas, USA
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© Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon 2011
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or
under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by
the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street,
London EC1N 8TS.
Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims
for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identifi ed as the author of
this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents
Act 1988.
First published 2011 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers
Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above
companies and has companies and representatives throughout the
world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the
United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries
ISBN 978–0–230–24873–1 paperback
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from
fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and
m anufacturing processes are expected to conform to the
environmental regulations of the country of origin.
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A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of
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Printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
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For my wife, Amanda,
and my children,
Sophia, Isabel, and Kieran
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The central purpose of British Colonial Policy is simple. It is to
guide the Colonial Territories to responsible self-government
within the Commonwealth in conditions that ensure to the
people concerned both a fair standard of living and freedom
from oppression from any quarter.
Arthur Creech Jones, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1948
There is nothing in the colonial record of Great Britain for
which we have cause to hang our heads. I claim that The
Queen’s peace, the advance of enlightenment and knowledge,
the increased prosperity, the rising standard of life, freedom
from fear, which we have brought with us, are achievements
with which we can face the verdict either of history, or of a still
higher judgement, with pride and confi dence.
Oliver Lyttelton, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1953
As I see it the great issue in this second half of the twentieth
century is whether the uncommitted peoples of Asia and Africa
will swing to the East or to the West. Will they be drawn into
the Communist camp? Or will the great experiments in self-gov-
ernment that are now being made in Asia and Africa, especially
within the Commonwealth, prove so successful, and by their
example so compelling, that the balance will come down in
favour of freedom and order and justice? The struggle is joined,
and it is a struggle for the minds of men. What is now on trial
is much more than our military strength or our diplomatic and
administrative skill. It is our way of life.
Harold Macmillan, Prime Minister, 1960
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Contents
List of Plates ix
Acknowledgments xi
Maps xiv
Prologue 1
1 T he Attlee Years, July 27, 1945, to October 26, 1951 5
I. A promised land, but to whom? 5
II. The American intervention 23
III. The terror begins again 31
IV. The end of compromise 48
V. Into the abyss 58
VI. The Endgame in Palestine 80
VII. Trouble comes to Malaya 100
VIII. T he appointment of Sir Harold Briggs 127
IX. The Special Air Service, the Briggs Plan,
and progress in Malaya 140
X. The end of the Attlee years 166
2 T he Churchill Years, October 26, 1951, to April 7, 1955 173
I. A new government, a new approach 173
II. The carrot and the stick 189
III. The challenge of Mau Mau 208
IV. The General’s stamp in Malaya 226
V. “The Horned Shadow of the Devil Himself” 233
VI. Dirty wars, dirty deeds 251
VII. A fresh start in Kenya? 264
VIII. The end of the Churchill years 275
vii
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Contents
3 T he Eden Years, April 7, 1955, to January 10, 1957 297
I. Problems in paradise 297
II. Templer’s return 310
III. The Dirty wars become even dirtier 324
IV. Suez 338
V. The endgame for Anthony Eden 349
Epilogue: The Imperial Endgame after Eden 351
Notes 378
Bibliography 446
Index 458
viii
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List of Plates
Plate 1 T he explosion of a second bomb at the King David
Hotel in Jerusalem, Palestine, 22 July 1946. © Imperial
War Museum.
Plate 2 D amage done by terrorist bombs to a police station in
Jaffa, Palestine, 1946. © Imperial War Museum.
Plate 3 A derailed mail train in Johore, Malaya, c. 1950.
© Imperial War Museum.
Plate 4 A New Village in Malaya, c. 1952. © Imperial War
Museum.
Plate 5 M embers of the Malayan Home Guard receiving hand
grenade training, c. 1950. © Imperial War Museum.
Plate 6 A Dyak tracker being instructed in Malaya, c. 1949.
© Imperial War Museum.
Plate 7 A suspected Mau Mau insurgent being taken for inter-
rogation, 1955. © Imperial War Museum.
Plate 8 S ir Evelyn Baring inspecting the King’s African Rifl es
in Kenya, 1957. © Imperial War Museum.
Plate 9 A British Army lorry burnt out by EOKA in Cyprus,
1955. © Imperial War Museum.
Plate 10 T he British Army on patrol in the Western Aden
Protectorate, July 1955. © Imperial War Museum.
Plate section appears between pages 172 and 173.
ix
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