The Malayan Emergency
Revolution and Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire

The first in-depth and multi-perspective study of anti-colonial resistance and counterinsurgency in the Malayan Emergency and its impact on Malaysia.

Karl Hack (Author)

9781107080102, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 December 2021

340 pages
23.6 x 15.9 x 3.5 cm, 0.908 kg

'Karl Hack has written the definitive history of the Malayan Emergency. He examines the event from the multiple perspectives of the government, the insurgents and the local people. This is outstanding scholarship dealing with one of the defining moments in Malaysian history and the Cold War in Southeast Asia.' Danny Wong, University of Malaya

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.

1. Introduction and overview
2. Fatal decisions: late 1947 to 20 June 1948
3. Terror, counter-terror and pressure: June 1948 to January 1949
4. Bureaucratic counter-terror and MNLA main forces: January 1949 to February 1950
5. The Briggs plan: March 1950 to November 1951
6. Chin Peng and communist plans: October 1950 to early 1954
7. Templer: November 1951 to early 1953
8. Optimising Counterinsurgency: 1952 to 1960
9. Politics, Decolonisation and Counterinsurgency: 1952 to 1960
10. Conclusion. Historiography, myths and 'lessons'
Appendix 1: Emergency statistics (casualties, full time police strength)
Appendix 2: The second Malayan emergency, 1968-1989
Glossary
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW], Postwar 20th century history, from c 1945 to c 2000 [HBLW3], Asian history [HBJF]