Quote:
Originally Posted by zraver
Mayalasia succeeded primarily beucase of the dual use of relocation and cutting of supply lines.
|
Zraver,
The hamlets achieved marginal success in Malaya. If not for the Korean War boom in the tin and rubber industries, providing the funds necessary to provide minimal quality of life services in the various hamlets, this program would have been a complete disaster. When you execute a hamlet program, you put all your eggs in one basket. If your hamlet conditions are poor, then you delegitimze your own efforts. Furthermore, the hamlet only serves to protect and maintain control while the hamlet members are in the hamlet. Those in the hamlets still faced insurgent coercion while they were out in the fields or on the plantations.
I've attached a presentation script that I did two years back on the political successes coupled with the MCP decision to revert from Phase II back to Phase I that I think were the main elements in the success of ending the Malayan Emergency.
In the end, it is the totality of your strategy that will yield your end result, and so it wasn't solely the political successes that yielded victory, but I do think that they were the most successful line of operation.