BRITAIN IN VIETNAM: A MYTH RE-EXAMINED
BRITAIN IN VIETNAM: A MYTH RE-EXAMINED

Summary/Abstract: Hitherto (as this article will demonstrate) there has been a number of excellent studies concerning Britain’s brief but controversial involvement in the origins of the Vietnam War. Yet despite a number of sophisticated Anglocentric accounts concerning Britain’s involvement in Vietnam in 1945, historians have been content to follow like sheep the doyens of the past. The result has been to either prosecute or defend the actions of the British commanding officer in Saigon – Major-General Sir Douglas Gracey. But in doing so, little attention has been given to either the context (the Burma Campaign 1942-5) of Gracey’s deployment in Vietnam or the consequence (Kashmir 1947 -8) of this first British brush with post-war Asian nationalism. This article therefore argues for a reappraisal of Gracey’s actions outside of the narrow confines of the Vietnam War in order to more broadly understand early attempts at peace enforcement vis-à-vis the decline of empire.

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