Nasty not nice: British counter-insurgency doctrine and practice, 1945–1967

Abstract

At the beginning of the twenty-first century the British Ministry of Defence prided itself that it was the Western world's leader in the conduct of counter-insurgency operations. Drawing on the lessons it had learnt during Britain's wars of decolonisation, it believed that it had discovered ways of waging wars among the people that enabled it to use force effectively but with discrimination, distinguishing between the ‘guilty’ few and the ‘innocent’ many. This article will survey these assertions in the light of historical evidence drawn from 10 of those campaigns: Palestine, Malaya, the Suez Canal Zone, Kenya, British Guiana, Cyprus, Oman, Nyasaland, Borneo, and Aden. It will suggest that the real foundation of British counter-insurgency doctrine and practice was not the quest to win ‘hearts and minds’. It was the application of wholesale coercion.

Keywords:

• wars of decolonisation
• counter-insurgency
• British army
• hearts and minds
• colonial emergencies

Acknowledgements

Crown copyright material is reproduced under class Licence Number C20060000011 of OPSI and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. The author is also grateful to the Department of Documents and the Sound Archives of the Imperial War Museum for permission to use material to which they own the copyright.

Notes

 1. MOD, Army Field Manual. Vol. 1, B-2-1.

 2. MOD, Army Field Manual. Vol. 1, B-12-1.

 3. Thompson, Defeating Communist Insurgency.

 4. MOD, Joint Doctrine Publication 3–40, 2–8.

 5. Newsinger, ‘Review of Mockaitis’; Newsinger, British Counterinsurgency.

 6. Stubbs, Hearts and Mind; Hack, ‘British Intelligence and Counter-insurgency in the Era of Decolonisation’; Hack, ‘Corpses, Prisoners of War and Captured Documents’.

 7. Anderson, Histories of the Hanged; Elkins, Britain's Gulag; Bennett, ‘British Army Counterinsurgency and the Use of Force in Kenya, 1952–56’; Branch, Defeating Mau Mau.

 8. MOD, Army Field Manual. Vol. 1, B-3-11.

 9. Kirk-Greene, On Crown Service, 39–91.

10. Report of the Police Adviser to the Colonial Secretary, 28 December 1949, Colonial Office [CO] 537/5440, The National Archives [TNA]; Whitaker's Almanac, 1954. London: John Whitaker, 1954.

11. French, Army, Empire and Cold War, 36–54, 82–108, 198–241.

12. Carruthers, Winning Hearts and Minds, 77–8.

13. Macfie, ‘My Orientalism’, 88.

14. A. Walker, ‘The Intelligent Way’. Downloaded 20 April 2009 at http://www.britains-smallwars.com/cyprus/Davidcarter/Walker/intelcorps.html.

15. COS, Palestine, Imposition of Martial Law, 26 March 1947, CAB 129/18/CP(47)107, TNA.

16. Emergency Powers (Colonial Defence) Order-in-Council, 9 March 1939, CO 822/729, TNA; Sir A. Savage to Sir T. Lloyd, 17 September 1953, CO 1031/122, TNA; Simpson, ‘Round up the Usual Suspects’, 652–78.

17. Copies of the regulations can be found at: (Palestine) Defence (Emergency) Regulations. The Palestine Gazette, No. 1442. Published by the British government, Palestine (27 September 1945), Regulations 12–65, available at: http://www.geocities.com/savepalestinenow/emergencyregs/emergencyregs.htm (downloaded on 16 September 2008) and at: Supplement No 2. Palestine Gazette Extraordinary No. 1470 of 28 January 1946. Defence (Emergency) Regulations, CO 717/471/13, TNA; (Malaya) The Essential Regulations Proclamation, 18 June 1948, CO 717/161/1, TNA; Federation of Malaya. Regulations made under the Emergency Regulations Ordinance, 1948 together with the Essential (Special Constabulary) Regulations 1948, incorporating all amendments up to 22 March 1949. (Kuala Lumpur: Government Press, 1949), CO 717/167/3, TNA; Federation of Malaya. Emergency (Amendment no. 13) Regulations, 1949, 24 May 1949, CO 717/167/3, TNA; (Kenya) Emergency Regulations made under the Emergency Powers Order-in–Council, 1939 (Nairobi: Government Printer, 1953), CO 822/729, TNA; (British Guiana) The Official Gazette of British Guiana, 10 October 1953, CO 115/215, TNA; (Cyprus) A Law to make provision for the Detention of Persons in certain circumstances. No. 26 of 1955, 15 July 1955, CO 926/396, TNA; Emergency Powers (Public Safety and Order) Regulations, 1955, 24 November 1955, CO 926/561, TNA; (Nyasaland) Footman, to Gorrell-Barnes, 25 September 1953 and enc., CO 1015/658, TNA; Emergency Powers Order-in-Council, 1939 and 1956. Emergency Regulations 1959, CO 1015/1516, TNA; (North Borneo) Second Supplement to the Government Gazette, 8 December 1962, CO 936/854 TNA; (Aden). The Constitution of the Federation of South Arabia. Public Emergency Decree, 1963, 10 December 1963, CO 1055/207 TNA; (Aden) Public Emergency Amendment Decree, 1965, 16 February 1965, CO 1055/207, TNA.

18. Note of a meeting held on security matters in British Guiana in Mr Seel's room, Church House, on 28 October 1948, CO 111/736/4, TNA.

19. BDCC (Far East). 16 meeting, 28 January 1949, CO 537/4753, TNA.

20. Instructions to individuals for opening fire in Cyprus. Issued by Chief of Staff to H.E. the Governor, December 1955, Misc 93. Item 1391, Imperial War Museum Department of Documents [IWMDoD].

21. Times, 7 July 1958.

22. Commissioner-General South East Asia to CO, 26 June 1948, CO 537/3692, TNA.

23. Sir David Calthrop Thorne, reel 5, Accession No. 20320, Imperial War Museum Sound Archive [IWMSA].

24. There were approximately 8.4 million Algerian Muslims in Algeria. See Beckett, Modern Insurgencies and Counter-Insurgencies. The figure of 100,000 detainees is derived from Lazreg, Torture and the Twilight, 49.

25. These figures are derived from: Sutton, ‘Population Resettlement’, 286; Cann, ‘Portuguese Counterinsurgency Campaigning in Africa’, 5, 11, 296–8.

26. War Office [WO], Imperial Policing and Duties in Aid of the Civil Power, 1949. London: War Office, 13 June 1949, 35, WO 279/391, TNA.

27. Commander British Forces Arabian Peninsula to BDCC (Middle East), 24 July 1957, Ministry of Defence [DEFE] 7/2415, TNA; Operations in Radfan, 14 April 1964 to 30 June 1964, 1 August 1964, WO 386/22, TNA.

28. C. Hollingworth, ‘British Try to Starve out Tribesmen’, Guardian, 16 May 1964.

29. Smith and Roberts, ‘War in the Grey’, 377–98.

30. High Commissioner Aden to CO, 2 December 1964, CO 1055/280, TNA; Reuters telegram, 23–25 February 1965, CO 1055/280, TNA; Turnbull to CO, 19 March 1965, CO 1055/280, TNA.

31. Baring to CO, 20 April 1953, CO 822/474, TNA.

32. Cesarani, Major Farran's Hat.

33. In Kenya detainees were also likely to be tortured at a third stage, during their journey along the ‘Pipeline’, when physical punishments were used to force them to recant their beliefs. See Elkins, Britain's Gulag, passim.

34. Brig. Pugh, Operational Standing Orders. 26 Gurkha Infantry Brigade. 1 June 1950, Maj.-Gen. Lewis Owain Pugh 67/67/1-5(1), IWMDoD; War Office, Intelligence in Internal Security Operations. London: War Office, 28 August 1963, WO 32/19064, TNA.

35. BBC, Empire Warriors; L. Crosland, reel 2, Accession No. 10232, IWMSA.

36. These techniques were cited in a petition presented to the Colonial Secretary by detainees held in Aden in November 1964. Petition by 27 detainees held at Fort Morbut to ‘The Minister for Colonial Affairs’, 27 November 1964, CO 1055/266, TNA.

37. Joint directive on military interrogation in IS operations overseas, 17 February 1965, CAB 163/68/JIC(65)15, TNA; T. Oates, Instructions on Detainees, 30 September 1965, CAB 163/68, TNA.

38. Wolfendale, ‘The Myth of “Torture Lite”’.

39. Brownlie, ‘Interrogation in Depth’.

40. Kerr, ‘A Force for Good?’, 412.

41. Brig. J.F.D. Murphy (Professor of Army Psychiatry) to Lt. Col. T.B. Stephens, Notes for Medical Officers on interrogation phase of exercise, 24 February 1969, DEFE 70/211, TNA; Shallice, ‘The Ulster Depth Interrogation Techniques’, 385.

42. Cesarani, Major Farran's Hat, passim.

43. Hatton, Tock Tock Birds, 138.

44. Proceedings of the McLean Court of Inquiry, 15 December 1953, WO 32/21720, TNA.

45. Manchester Guardian, 13 October 1958.

46. Foreign Secretary, South Arabia: Bowen Report on the handling of detainees in Aden, 1 December 1966, CAB 148/29/OPD(66)128, TNA.

47. Anderson, ‘Mau Mau in the High Court and the “Lost” British Empire Archives’, 712–14.

48. Sir R. Turnbull, Transcript, 42–3, Accession No. 4742, IWMSA.