Army, Empire, and Cold War

The British Army and Military Policy, 1945-1971
1. Auflage 2012
ISBN: 978-0-19-954823-1
Verlag: OUP Oxford

Buch, Englisch, 352 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 684 g

The veterans of the Fourteenth Army who fought in Burma between 1942 and 1945 called themselves 'the forgotten army'. But that appellation could equally well be applied to the whole of the British army after 1945. Histories of Britain's post-war defence policy have usually focused on how and why Britain acquired a nuclear deterrent. David French takes a new look at these policies by placing the army centre-stage. Drawing on archival sources that have hardly been used
by historians, he shows how British governments tried to create an army that would enable them to maintain their position as a major world power at a time when their economy struggled to foot the bill. The result was a growing mismatch between the military resources that the government thought it
could afford on the one hand, and a long list of overseas commitments, in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Far East, that it was reluctant to surrender. The result was that the British created a Potemkin army, a force that had an outwardly impressive facade, but that in reality had only very limited war-fighting capabilities.

Army, Empire, and Cold War will interest not only historians of the British army, but also those who are trying to understand Britain's role in the Cold War, and how and why the British came to surrender formal rule over their empire.

Zielgruppe

Academics and students of British overseas and defence policy after 1945, Britain and decolonization, the Cold War, and counter-insurgency operations

Autoren/Hrsg.

French, David

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Kolonialgeschichte, Geschichte des Imperialismus
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Europäische Länder
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
1: Policy-making and Police-makers
2: The New Model Army and the Cold War, 1945-1952
3: Service in the National Service Army
4: BAOR, MELF and Conventional Deterrence: 1948 to 1956
5: Counter-insurgency Operations, 1945 to 1956
6: 'Fire brigades'. Expeditionary Operations, 1945-1956
7: Duncan Sandys and the Creation of the All-Regular Army
8: 'A Good Employer'? The All-Regular Army
9: BAOR's Doctrine for Nuclear War
10: BAOR and the Nuclear Battlefield
11: 'Village Cricket': Expeditionary Operations, 1958-1966
12: The Army and the withdrawal from East of Suez
Conclusion: a Potemkin Army
Bibliography
Index

Über Autor(innen)

French, David
David French was at the University of York and the War Studies Department at King's College London. He spent 27 years at University College London before taking early retirement in 2008 to become a full-time writer. Professor French is the author of six previous books, and has been the recipient of the Arthur Goodzeit Prize of the New York Military Affairs Symposium. He is a three-time winner of the Templer Medal awarded by the Society for Army Historical Research. He is a Fellow of both the Royal Historical Society and the Historical Association, and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Strategic Studies, and the Council of the Army Records Society.