Electronic reproduction. Basingstoke, England : Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Mode of access:World Wide Web. System requirements: Web browser. Title from title screen (viewed on Apr. 24, 2009). Access may be restricted to users at subscribing institutions
Contending With Nationalism and Communism provides a lucid, concise analysis of the development of British policy in South -East Asia in the twenty years following the defeat of Japan. Theprincipal themesconcern nationalism and communism and how Britain worked to achieve accommodation with nationalist movements while containing communist challenges. It is based on archival and published sources. This is the firststudy to cover British policy from the final stages of the Pacific Warto the culmination of confrontation with Indonesia and escalation in Vietnam in 1965. British ministers and officials are seen as pragmatic and realistic, illustrated in the decisions to grant independence to Burma and Malaya, to support SEATO as a defensive concept, to avoid provoking Communist China, to encourage American involvement while discouraging dangerous American initiatives. The fundamental theme is is one of British assertiveness, extending to the close of the Geneva Conference in 1954, and then of gradual British withdrawal while American power expanded rapidly
List of Maps -- Acknowledgements -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- The Return of Colonialism, 1945-48 -- The Communist Challengesin Malaya and Indochina -- Two Approaches to Containing Communism: TheColombo Plan and SEATO, 1950-65 -- Democracy, Communism and Militarismin Burma, 1948-65 -- Ambivalence and Commitment: Vietnam, 1955-65 -- Britain, Cambodia and Laos, 1955-65 -- Britain, Thailand and the Philippines, 1945-65 -- Britain, Indonesia and the Creation of Malaysia, 1959-65-- Conclusion -- Appendix: List of British Officials -- Endnotes -- Select Bibliography -- Index
Includes bibliographical references (p. 292-300) and index
