Imperial Endgame Britain's Dirty Wars and the End of Empire [Paperback]

In this fresh and controversial account of Britain's end of empire, Grob-Fitzgibbon reveals that the British government developed a successful strategy of decolonization following the Second World War based on devolving power to indigenous peoples within the Commonwealth.Acknowledgments Maps Prologue PART I: THE ATTLEE YEARS, JULY 27, 1945 - OCTOBER 26, 1951 A Promised Land, but to Whom? The American Intervention The Terror Begins Again The End of Compromise Into the Abyss The Endgame in Palestine Trouble Comes to Malaya The Appointment of Sir Harold Briggs The Special Air Service, the Briggs Plan, and Progress in Malaya The End of the Attlee Years PART II: THE CHURCHILL YEARS, OCTOBER 26, 1951 - APRIL 6, 1955 A New Government, a New Approach The Carrot and the Stick The Challenge of Mau Mau The General's Stamp in Malaya 'The Horned Shadow of the Devil Himself' Dirty Wars, Dirty Deeds A Fresh Start in Kenya? The End of the Churchill Years PART III: THE EDEN YEARS, APRIL 7, 1955 - JANUARY 10, 1957 Problems in Paradise Templer's Return The Dirty Wars become Dirtier Suez The Endgame for Anthony Eden Epilogue: The Imperial Endgame after Eden Notes Bibliography Index

'Grob-Fitzgibbon challenges the popular view that Britain shed its empire politely, like a tea party at the vicarage in an Agatha Christie mystery. He makes it clear that the reality was very different. Withdrawal from empire was difficult, dangerous and dirty and the politicians, diplomats, soldiers and policemen who brought empire to an end did so in a way not brought out as powerfully and persuasively before. For anyone worried about how things might end in Iraq or Afghanistan, Grob-Fitzgibbon's excellent, dispassionate, forensic analysis will make uncomfortable but illuminating reading.'

- Colonel Alex Alderson, MBE, Director of the United Kingdom Counterinsurgency Centre

'Imperial Endgame is a controversial and important book. Benjamin Grob-Fitzgibbon has no tl³¼