Conflict And Confrontation In South East Asia 1961 1965

In the early 1960s, Britain and the United States were still trying to come to terms with the powerful forces of indigenous nationalism unleashed by the Second World War. The Indonesia-Malaysia confrontation - a crisis which was, as Macmillan remarked to Kennedy, 'as dangerous a situation in Southeast Asia as we have seen since the war' - was a complex test of Anglo-American relations. As American commitment to Vietnam accelerated under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, Britain was involving herself in an 'end-of-empire' exercise in state-building which had important military and political implications for both nations. In this book Matthew Jones provides a detailed insight into the origins, outbreak and development of this important episode in international history; using a large range of previously unavailable archival sources, he illuminates the formation of the Malaysian federation, Indonesia's violent opposition to the state and the Western Powers' attempts to deal with the resulting conflict.

This fascinating study looks at the origins, outbreak and course of the Indonesian-Malaysian confrontation of 1963-1966, within the context of British and American policies in South East Asia during the 1960s as a whole. Matthew Jones uses new archival sources to throw fresh light on such subjects as British Colonial policy and the creation of Malaysia, Anglo-American tensions over the confrontation itself, and the diplomacy of that important, but often neglected, international dispute.

During 1965 the Vietnam War was transformed into an American War. 'Escalation' brought the deployment of increasing numbers of United States ground troops, and a slowly expanding air campaign against North Vietnam. Yet the war was 'limited' in more senses than one. It was not allowed, either by President Johnson or by the leaders of the Soviet Union and China, to lead to a wider confrontation in other parts of the world; not even, as a 'big unit' war on the ground, to spread beyond the borders of Vietnam.

This volume is devoted to the shaping of British foreign and defence policymaking in the twentieth century and illustrates why it's relatively easy for states to lose their way as they grope for a safe passage forward when confronted by mounting international crises and the antics of a few desperate men.

Maike Hausen presents a transnational, multi-perspective review of strategic and security discussions among the former British white settler colonies Australia, Canada and New Zealand in the 1960s. Focusing on the foreign policy debate surrounding the British decision to withdraw their military 'East of Suez' from Southeast Asia, she reviews extensive source material to examine the transformation of political, diplomatic and strategic ties between Great Britain and Australia, Canada and New Zealand. By embedding the East of Suez discussion into a larger framework of long-term postcolonial transformations and developments of the Cold War and decolonization, the study traces how the British decision upset the traditional conduct of concerted foreign policy and led to notions of crisis and uncertainty as well as to reviews that would ultimately contribute to more independent national outlooks and policies.

In 2015, Singapore celebrates its 50th anniversary of independence. This book covers the complex historical forces and circumstances that shaped this nation. It tells of Britain's imperial visions and schemes, and of how their failure cast a shadow on the story of Singapore's incorporation into the Federation of Malaysia and expulsion from it.