The British Army, the Gurkhas and Cold War Strategy in the Far East, 1947-1954 (Studies in Military & Strategic History)
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: July 19, 2002
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 360
ISBN-13: 9780333801482
Subjects: Defence strategy, planning & research; International relations; World history: postwar, from c 1945 -; Postwar period, 1945 to c 2000; c 1945 to c 1960; Political Science; History - Military / War; Military; East Asia, Far East; United Kingdom, Great Britain; Military - Strategy; Political Science / International Relations; Asia - General; International Relations - General; Military - Vietnam War; 20th century; Army; Cold War; East Asia; Great Britain; Gurkha soldiers; History; Military policy; Strategic aspects
First sentence: In the aftermath of the most destructive war in human history, Great Britain faced the need to develop a viable postwar military strategy in line with both its extensive imperial commitments and enfeebled economy.
Description: "In the late 1940s Communist threats in the Far East posed a serious challenge to Britain's long-term strategy to defend the homeland against the Soviet Union. By 1950 Britain was forced to modify its strategy when the last of its strategic reserve forces was deployed to meet contingencies in Malaya, Hong Kong and Korea. This is one of the reasons some scholars have concluded that poor government decisionmaking had resulted in 'imperial over-extension'.

This book argues that 'imperial over-extension' is both overstated and mis-specified and explains how Britain succeeded at adjusting its defense strategy to meet the communist threat in the Far East from 1947 to 1954.

There Britain deployed imperial, Gurkha and Commonwealth forces only in contingencies that threatened vital British interests, and succeeded in shifting responsibility for key wartime missions to its US and Commonwealth allies, thus preserving Britain's ability to fight in Western Europe."--BOOK JACKET.