The Malayan emergency : revolution and counterinsurgency at the end of empire

The Malayan Emergency of 1948–1960 has been scrutinised for 'lessons' about how to win counterinsurgencies from the Vietnam War to twenty-first century Afghanistan. This book brings our understanding of the conflict up to date by interweaving government and insurgent accounts and looking at how they played out at local level. Drawing on oral history, recent memoirs and declassified archival material from the UK and Asia, Karl Hack offers a comprehensive, multi-perspective account of the Malayan Emergency and its impact on Malaysia. He sheds new light on questions about terror and violence against civilians, how insurgency and decolonisation interacted and how revolution was defeated. He considers how government policies such as pressurising villagers, resettlement and winning 'hearts and minds' can be judged from the perspective of insurgents and civilians. This timely book is the first truly multi-perspective and in-depth study of anti-colonial resistance and counterinsurgency in the Malayan Emergency. "Introduction and overview The 'Malayan Emergency' lasted from mid-June 1948 until 31 July 1960. At its peak in 1951-52, 40,000 troops, over 70,000 police, and more than 250,000 Home Guards confronted seven to eight thousand armed insurgents. Led by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP), the guerrillas were backed by Min Yuen (Mass Organisation) cells for suppliers, women, youth and more, and beyond that by supporters and sympathisers estimated as peaking at anything up to a million.1 They operated in the equatorial jungle that covered two thirds of the country, on mountain and hill, in belukar (dense, scrubby secondary jungle), lalang (tall, course grass), in marsh at the forest's edge, in rubber plantations and close to small villages and squatter settlements. The administration's aim was to protect, control, coerce and cajole a population that rose from just under five million in June 1948 to six million in 1956, in particular those living along the forest fringe. This population, which in 1948 comprised 49 percent Malays, 38 percent Chinese, and 11 percent Indians, inhabited an area roughly the size of England without Wales"-- Provided by publisher Copyright_page Contents Figures Maps List of Tables and Charts Preface and Acknowledgements Note on the Text: Language, Terminology and Measures Abbreviations Additional_material 1 Introduction and Overview 2 Fatal Decisions: Late 1947 to 20 June 1948 3 Terror, Counter-Terror and Pressure 4 Bureaucratic Counter-Terror and MNLA Main Forces 5 The Briggs Plan: March 1950 to November 1951 6 Chin Peng and Communist Plans: 7 Templer: February 1952 to Early 1954 8 Optimising Counterinsurgency: 1952 to 1960 9 Politics, Decolonisation and Counterinsurgency 10 Conclusion Appendix 1 Emergency Statistics, 1948 to 1960 Appendix 2 The Second Emergency, 1968 to 1989 Glossary Bibliography Index