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{{Short description|1948–1960 British colonial war in Malaya}}
{{EngvarB|date=September 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2023}}
{{Infobox military conflict
| conflict          = Malayan Emergency<br />{{lang|ms|Darurat Malaya}}<br />{{lang|zh-hant|馬來亞緊急狀態}}<br />{{lang|ta|மலாயா அவசரகாலம்}}
| partof            = the [[decolonization of Asia]] and [[Cold War in Asia]]
| image             = {{multiple image|border=infobox|perrow=2/2/2|total_width=300
|image1=RAAFAvroLincolnMalaya1950.jpg
|alt1=
|image2=Outdoor portrait of Lee Min, leader of the communist Kepayang Gang in the Ipoh district in 1951 (AWM 4281801).JPG
|alt2=
|image3=Briggs' Plan civilians - IWM GOV 3821.png
|alt3=
|image4=OPERATIONS OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE IN MALAYA MAY 1950 IWM GOV 2267A.png
|alt4=
|image5=King's African Rifles in Malaya - IWM K 14004.png
|alt5=}}
'''Clockwise from top left:''' {{flatlist|
* Australian [[Avro Lincoln]] bomber dropping 500lb bombs
* Communist leader [[Lee Meng]] in 1952
* RAF staff loads bombs to be used against communist rebels
* [[King's African Rifles]] search abandoned hut
* Civilians forcibly evicted from their land by the British as part of the [[Briggs' Plan]]
}}
| image_upright     = 1.35
| date              = 16 June 1948 – 31 July 1960<br />({{Age in years, months, weeks and days|month1=06|day1=16|year1=1948|month2=07|day2=31|year2=1960}})
| place             = [[British Malaya]]
| territory         =
| result            = [[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]] victory
* Independence of the [[Federation of Malaya]] on [[Independence Day (Malaysia)|31 August 1957]]
* Federation of Malaya became an independent member of the [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]]<ref name="Federation of Malaya Independence Act">{{sourcetext|source=Federation of Malaya Independence Act 1957}}</ref><ref name="Malaysia Act 1963">{{sourcetext|source=Malaysia Act 1963}}</ref>
* [[Malayan Communist Party|CPM]] retreats to the [[Malaysia-Thailand border|Malayan-Thai border]]
* [[Communist insurgency in Malaysia (1968–1989)|Insurgency continues (1968–1989)]]
* Conflict resolved through the [[Peace Agreement of Hat Yai (1989)]]
| combatant1        = '''[[Commonwealth of Nations|British Commonwealth]] forces:'''<br />{{flag|United Kingdom}}
* {{flagdeco|Malaya}} [[Federation of Malaya]]
* {{flagcountry|Colony of Singapore}}
* {{flagcountry|Crown Colony of Malacca}}<br />(until 1957)
* {{flagcountry|Crown Colony of Penang|1949}}<br />(until 1957)
* {{flagdeco|Kenya|colonial}} [[Kenya Colony|Kenya]]
* {{flag|Southern Rhodesia}}<br />(until 1953)
* {{flag|Rhodesia and Nyasaland}}<br />(from 1953)
* {{flagdeco|Fiji|colonial}} [[Colonial Fiji|Fiji]]
{{flag|Australia}}<br />{{flag|New Zealand}}<br />'''Supported by:'''<br />{{flag|Thailand}}<br />(Thai–Malaysian border)
| combatant2        = '''[[Communism|Communist]] forces:'''<br />{{flagicon image|Flag of the Communist Party of Malaya.svg}} [[Malayan Communist Party]]<!-- Please do not add foreign supporters here without either ensuring that the addition is supported elsewhere in the article as per WP:INFOBOXCITE -->
* {{flagicon image|Flag of the Malayan National Liberation Army.svg}} [[Malayan National Liberation Army]]
| commander1        = {{flagdeco|UK}} United Kingdom
* [[Clement Attlee]]<br />(until 1951)
* [[Winston Churchill]] (1951–1955)
* [[Anthony Eden]] (1955–1957)
* [[Harold Macmillan]] (1957–1960)
* [[Harold Rawdon Briggs|Harold Briggs]]
* [[Robert Elliot Urquhart|Roy Urquhart]]
* [[Edward Gent]]
* [[Henry Gurney]]{{KIA|Assassination of Sir Henry Gurney}}
* [[Gerald Templer]]
* [[William Allmond Codrington Goode|William Goode]]
{{flagdeco|Malaya}} Malaya
* [[Abdul Rahman of Negeri Sembilan]]
* [[Tunku Abdul Rahman]]
* [[Abdul Razak Hussein|Tun Razak]]
* [[Ismail Abdul Rahman|Tun Ismail]]
{{flagdeco|Colony of Singapore}} Singapore
* [[David Saul Marshall|David Marshall]]
* [[Lim Yew Hock]]
* [[Yusof Ishak]]
* [[Lee Kuan Yew]]
{{flagdeco|Australia}} Australia
* [[Robert Menzies]]
* [[Henry Wells (general)|Henry Wells]]
{{flagdeco|New Zealand}} New Zealand
* [[Sidney Holland]]<br />(1951–1957)
* [[Walter Nash]]<br />(1957–1960)
| commander2        = {{flagicon image|Flag of the Communist Party of Malaya.svg}} Malayan Communist Party
* [[Chin Peng]]
* [[Yeung Kwo]]{{KIA}}
* [[Lee An Tong]]
* [[Chang Ling-Yun]]
{{flagicon image|Flag of the Malayan National Liberation Army.svg}} Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA)
* [[Abdullah CD]]
* [[Rashid Maidin]]
* [[Shamsiah Fakeh]]
* [[S. A. Ganapathy]]{{Executed}}
* [[Lau Yew]]{{KIA|Death of Lau Yew}}
* [[Muhammad Indera|Mat Indera]]{{Executed}}
* [[Lee Meng]]
* [[Toh Kar Lim]]
* [[Liew Kon Kim]]
| strength1         = Over 451,000 troops
* 250,000 [[Royal Malay Regiment|Malayan Home Guard]] (Malayan Regiment) troops
* 40,000 regular [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] personnel
* [[King's African Rifles]]
* [[Gurkha|Gurkha regiments]]
* 37,000 [[Special Constable]]s
* 24,000 Federation Police
* Unknown number of [[Orang Asli]] allies.
* Over 1,000 [[Iban people|Iban]] (Dayak) headhunters
| strength2         = Over 7,000 troops
* + 7,000 [[Malayan National Liberation Army|MNLA]] full-time troops (1951)
* + Estimated 1,000,000 sympathisers
* + 200–400 [[Japanese holdout|former Japanese troops]]
* Unknown number of [[Orang Asli]] allies
* Unknown number of [[Min Yuen]] civilian supporters
| casualties1       = {{flagdeco|UK}} 1,443 killed<br />{{flagdeco|Malaya}} 1,346 killed<br />{{flagdeco|UK}}{{flagdeco|Malaya}} 2,406 wounded<br />{{flagdeco|Australia}} 39 killed<br />{{flagdeco|New Zealand}} 15 killed<br>{{flagdeco|Southern Rhodesia}} 8 killed
| casualties2       = 6,710 killed<br />226 executed<br>1,289 wounded<br />1,287 captured<br />2,702 surrendered
| casualties3       = Civilians killed: 2,478<br />Civilians missing: 810<br />Civilian casualties: 5,000+<br />'''Total killed: 11,107'''
| notes             =
| campaignbox       = {{Campaignbox Malayan Emergency}}
}}{{British Colonial Emergencies}}
The '''Malayan Emergency''', also known as the '''Anti–British National Liberation War''', {{nowrap|(1948–1960)}} was a [[guerrilla warfare|guerrilla war]] fought in [[Federation of Malaya|Malaya]] between communist pro-independence fighters of the [[Malayan National Liberation Army]] (MNLA) and the military forces of the Federation of Malaya and [[Commonwealth of Nations|Commonwealth]] ([[British Empire]]). The communists fought to win independence for Malaya from the British Empire and to establish a communist state, while the Malayan Federation and Commonwealth forces fought to combat communism and protect British economic and colonial interests.<ref>Deery, Phillip. "Malaya, 1948: Britain's Asian Cold War?" Journal of Cold War Studies 9, no. 1 (2007): 29–54.</ref><ref name="Siver, Christi L 2009. p.36">Siver, Christi L. "The other forgotten war: understanding atrocities during the Malayan Emergency." In APSA 2009 Toronto Meeting Paper. 2009., p.36</ref>{{sfn|Newsinger|2013|p=217}} The term "Emergency" was used by the British to characterise the conflict in order to avoid referring to it as a war, because London-based insurers would not pay out in instances of civil wars.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Small Wars, Faraway Places: Global Insurrection and the Making of the Modern World 1945–1965 |last=Burleigh |first=Michael |publisher=Viking – Penguin Group |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-670-02545-9 |location=New York|page=164}}</ref>

The war began on 17 June 1948, after Britain declared a [[state of emergency]] in Malaya following attacks on [[plantations]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Small Wars Faraway Places: Global Insurrection and the Making of the Modern World 1945–1965|last=Burleigh|first=Michael|publisher=Viking – Penguin Group|year=2013|isbn=978-0-670-02545-9|location=New York|pages=163–164}}</ref> which had been revenge attacks for the killing of left-wing activists.{{sfn|Newsinger|2013|p=216–217}} Leader of the [[Malayan Communist Party]] (MCP) [[Chin Peng]] and his allies fled into the jungles and formed the MNLA to wage a war for [[national liberation]] against British colonial rule. Many MNLA fighters were veterans of the [[Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army]] (MPAJA), a communist guerrilla army previously trained, armed and funded by the British to fight against [[Imperial Japanese Army|Japan]] during [[World War II]].<ref name=":2">{{cite journal |last=Hack |first=Karl |title=Everyone Lived in Fear: Malaya and the British way of Counterinsurgency |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09592318.2012.709764 |journal=Small Wars and Insurgencies |volume=23 |issue=4–5 |page=672 |date=28 September 2012 |s2cid=143847349 |doi=10.1080/09592318.2012.709764 |via=Taylor and Francis Online}}</ref> The communists gained support from many civilians, mainly those from the Chinese community.<ref name="the_malayan_emergency_2021_11_11_the_forum_bbc">Datar, Rajan (host), with author Sim Chi Yin; academic Show Ying Xin (Malaysia Institute, [[Australian National University]]); and academic Rachel Leow ([[University of Cambridge]]): [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3ct1rm2 "The Malayan Emergency: A long Cold War conflict seen through the eyes of the Chinese community in Malaya,"] 11 November 2021, ''[[The Forum (BBC World Service)]],'' (radio program) [[British Broadcasting Corporation|BBC]], retrieved 11 November 2021</ref> The communists' belief in [[class consciousness]], and both ethnic and gender equality, inspired many women and indigenous people to join both the MNLA and its undercover supply network the [[Min Yuen]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Khoo |first=Agnes |title=Life as the River Flows: Women in the Malayan Anti-Colonial Struggle |publisher=Merlin Press |year=2007 |location=Monmouth, Wales |pages=12–13 |language=English}}</ref> Additionally, hundreds of former Japanese soldiers joined the MNLA.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hara |first1=Fujio |title=Former Japanese Soldiers Who Joined Communist Guerrillas in Malaya |journal=Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society |date=2016 |volume=89 |issue=2 (311) |pages=67–99 |doi=10.1353/ras.2016.0025 |jstor=26527760 |s2cid=201734987 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26527760 |access-date=11 January 2023}}</ref> After establishing a series of jungle bases the MNLA began raiding British colonial police and military installations. Mines, plantations, and trains were attacked by the MNLA with the goal of gaining independence for Malaya by bankrupting the British occupation.

The British attempted to starve the MNLA using [[scorched earth]] policies through food rationing, killing livestock, and aerial spraying of the herbicide [[Agent Orange]].{{refn|name=sche|<ref name=BFBS21/><ref name=Mann13/><ref name=Hay82/><ref name=JaWa21/>}} The British engaged in [[extrajudicial killings]] of unarmed villagers, in violation of the [[Geneva Conventions]].<ref name="Siv18">{{cite book |last1=Siver |first1=Christi |title=Military Interventions, War Crimes, and Protecting Civilians |date=2018 |publisher=[[Palgrave Macmillan]] / [[Springer Nature]]|quote=British efforts to educate soldiers about the Geneva Conventions either did not ever reach units deployed in Malaya or left no impression on them...All of these regiments went through the introductory jungle warfare course and received the same instruction about 'snap shooting' and differentiating between targets. Differences in training do not seem to explain why some units killed civilians while others did not.|chapter=Enemies or Friendlies? British Military Behavior Toward Civilians During the Malayan Emergency |pages=2–8, 19–20, 57–90|location=Cham |doi=10.1007/978-3-319-77691-0 |isbn=978-3-319-77690-3 |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-319-77691-0}}</ref> The most infamous example is the [[Batang Kali massacre]], which the press has referred to as "Britain's [[My Lai massacre|My Lai]]".{{efn|name=BrMyL|eg ''The Times'' 2012,<ref name=TimesML12>{{cite news |title=A mistake or murder in cold blood? Court to rule over 'Britain's My Lai' |url=https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/a-mistake-or-murder-in-cold-blood-court-to-rule-over-britains-my-lai-jpjmxt8r37q |work=[[The Times]] |location=London |date=28 April 2012 |language=en |url-access=subscription}}</ref> ''The Independent'' 2015,<ref>{{cite news |last1=Connett |first1=David |title=Batang Kali killings: Britain in the dock over 1948 massacre in Malaysia |location=London|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/batang-kali-killings-britain-in-the-dock-over-1948-massacre-in-malaysia-10187309.html |work=[[The Independent]] |date=18 April 2015 |language=en}}</ref> ''The Guardian'' 2012<ref name=Bowc12>{{cite news |last1=Bowcott |first1=Owen |title=Batang Kali relatives edge closer to the truth about 'Britain's My Lai massacre' |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/25/malaysia-military |work=The Guardian|location=London|date=25 January 2012 |language=en}}</ref> While the phrase has often been used in the British press, the scholar Matthew Hughes has pointed out in the journal ''Small Wars & Insurgencies'' that in terms of the number killed the massacre at Batang Kali is not of a comparable magnitude to the one at Mỹ Lai.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Hughes |first1=Matthew |title=Introduction: British ways of counter-insurgency |journal=Small Wars & Insurgencies |date=October 2012 |volume=23 |issue=4–5 |pages=580–590|doi-access=free|location=London|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]|doi=10.1080/09592318.2012.709771}}</ref> }} The [[Briggs Plan]] forcibly relocated between 400,000 and 1,000,000 civilians into [[concentration camps]] called "[[new village]]s".<ref name="Keo19">{{cite journal |last1=Keo |first1=Bernard Z. |title=A small, distant war? Historiographical reflections on the Malayan Emergency |journal=[[History Compass]] |date=March 2019 |volume=17 |issue=3|location=Hoboken|publisher=[[Wiley-Blackwell]]|pages=e12523 |doi=10.1111/hic3.12523|s2cid=150617654 |quote=Despite their innocuous nomenclature, New Villages were in fact, as Tan demonstrates, concentration camps designed less to keep the communists out but to place the rural Chinese population under strict government surveillance and control.}}</ref>{{sfn|Newsinger|2015|p=50|loc="Their homes and standing crops were fired, their agricultural implements were smashed and their livestock either killed or turned loose. Some were subsequently to receive compensation, but most never did. They were then transported by lorry to the site of their 'new village' which was often little more than a prison camp, surrounded by a barbed wire fence, illuminated by searchlights. The villages were heavily policed with the inhabitants effectively deprived of all civil rights."}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sandhu |first1=Kernial Singh |title=The Saga of the "Squatter" in Malaya |journal=[[Journal of Southeast Asian Studies|Journal of Southeast Asian History]] |date=March 1964 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|location=Cambridge|volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=143–177 |doi=10.1017/s0217781100002258|quote=The outstanding development of the Emergency in Malaya was the implementation of the Briggs Plan, as a result of which about 1,000,000 rural people were corralled into more than 600 'new' settlements, principally New Villages.}}</ref> Many [[Orang Asli]] indigenous communities were also targeted for internment because the British believed that they were supporting the communists.<ref name="Jones68">{{cite journal |last1=Jones |first1=Alun |title=The Orang Asli: An Outline of Their Progress in Modern Malaya |journal=[[Journal of Southeast Asian Studies|Journal of Southeast Asian History]] |date=September 1968 |location=Cambridge|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]]|quote=Thousands of Orang Asli were escorted out of the jungle by the police and the army, to find themselves being herded into hastily prepared camps surrounded by barbed wire to prevent their escape. The mental and physiological adaption called for was too much for many of the people of the hills and jungle and hundreds did not survive the experience.|volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=286–305 |doi=10.1017/s0217781100004713}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Idrus |first1=Rusalina |title=The Discourse of Protection and the Orang Asli in Malaysia |publisher=[[Universiti Sains Malaysia]]|location=Penang|journal=Kajian Malaysia |date=2011 |volume=29 |issue=Supp. 1 |pages=53–74 |url=http://web.usm.my/km/vol29_supp1_2011.html}}</ref> The widespread use of decapitations on people suspected to have been guerrillas, led to the 1952 [[British Malayan headhunting scandal]]. Similar scandals relating to atrocities committed by British forces included the public display of corpses.<ref name=":6" />

Although the emergency was declared over in 1960, communist leader [[Chin Peng]] renewed the insurgency against the Malaysian government in 1968. This [[Communist insurgency in Malaysia (1968–1989)|second phase of the insurgency]] lasted until 1989.

==Origins==
{{See also|Circumstances prior to the Malayan Emergency}}

===Socioeconomic issues (1941–1948)===
The economic disruption of World War II (WWII) on [[British Malaya]] led to widespread unemployment, low wages, and high levels of food price inflation. The weak economy was a factor in the growth of trade union movements and caused a rise in communist party membership, with considerable labour unrest and a large number of strikes occurring between 1946 and 1948.{{sfn|Newsinger|2015|p=41}} Malayan communists organised a successful 24-hour general strike on 29 January 1946,<ref name="Eric Stahl 2003">Eric Stahl, "Doomed from the Start: A New Perspective on the Malayan Insurgency" (master's thesis, 2003)</ref> before organising 300 strikes in 1947.<ref name="Eric Stahl 2003" />

To combat rising trade union activity the British used police and soldiers as strikebreakers, and employers enacted mass dismissals, forced evictions of striking workers from their homes, legal harassment, and began cutting the wages of their workers.{{sfn|Newsinger|2015|p=41}} Colonial police responded to rising trade union activity through arrests, deportations, and beating striking workers to death.{{sfn|Newsinger|2015|p=42}} Responding to the attacks against trade unions, communist militants began assassinating [[strikebreaker]]s, and attacking anti-union estates.{{sfn|Newsinger|2015|p=42}} These attacks were used by the colonial occupation as a pretext to conduct mass arrests of left-wing activists.{{sfn|Newsinger|2015|p=41}} On 12 June the British colonial occupation banned the PMFTU, Malaya's largest trade union.{{sfn|Newsinger|2015|p=42}}

Malaya's rubber and tin resources were used by the British to pay war debts to the United States and to recover from the damage of WWII.{{sfn|Newsinger|2015|p=42}} Malaysian rubber exports to the United States were of greater value than all domestic exports from Britain to America, causing Malaya to be viewed by the British as a vital asset.<ref name="De07">{{cite journal |last1=Deery |first1=Phillip |title=Malaya, 1948: Britain's Asian Cold War?|url=https://vuir.vu.edu.au/15471/1/15471.pdf|via=[[Victoria University, Melbourne|Victoria University]] Research Repository|journal=[[Journal of Cold War Studies]]|location=Cambridge, MA|publisher=[[MIT Press]]|date=1 January 2007 |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=29–54 |doi=10.1162/jcws.2007.9.1.29}}</ref><ref name="Siver, Christi L 2009. p.36" /> Britain had prepared for Malaya to become an independent state, but only by handing power to a government which would be subservient to Britain and allow British businesses to keep control of Malaya's natural resources.{{sfn|Newsinger|2015|p=43}}

===Sungai Siput incident (1948)===
The first shots of the Malayan Emergency were fired during the [[Sungai Siput incident]], on June 17, 1948, in the office of the Elphil Estate near the town of [[Sungai Siput]]. Three European [[plantation]] managers were killed by three young Chinese men suspected to have been communists.

The deaths of these European plantation managers was used by the British colonial occupation to either arrest or kill many of Malaya's communist and trade union leaders. These mass arrests and killings saw many left-wing activists going into hiding and fleeing into the Malayan jungles.

=== Origin and formation of the MNLA (1949) ===
Although the Malayan communists had begun preparations for a guerrilla war against the British, the emergency measures and mass arrest of communists and left-wing activists in 1948 took them by surprise.{{sfn|Newsinger|2015|p=44}} Led by [[Chin Peng]] the remaining Malayan communists retreated to rural areas and formed the [[Malayan National Liberation Army]] (MNLA) on 1 February 1949.<ref name="Postgate69">{{cite book |last1=Postgate |first1=Malcolm |last2=Air Historical Branch |first2=Ministry of Defence |title=Operation Firedog : air support in the Malayan emergency, 1948-1960 |date=1992 |publisher=H.M.S.O |location=London |isbn=9780117727243 |pages=4–14}}</ref>

The MNLA was partly a re-formation of the [[Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army]] (MPAJA), the communist guerrilla force which had been the principal resistance in Malaya against the [[Japanese occupation of Malaya|Japanese occupation]] during WWII. The British had secretly helped form the MPAJA in 1942 and trained them in the use of explosives, firearms and radios.<ref name="book_the_malayan_emergency_2008_jackson">{{cite book|last=Jackson|first=Robert|title=The Malayan Emergency|year=2008|publisher=Pen & Sword Aviation|location=London|page=10}}</ref> Chin Peng was a veteran anti-fascist and trade unionist who had played an integral role in the MPAJA's resistance.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bayly |first1=Christopher |last2=Harper |first2=Tim |title=Forgotten Armies: Britain's Asian Empire and the War with Japan |location=New York, NY |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NWURxfct6SgC&pg=PA1929 |date= 2005 |publisher=Penguin Books Limited |isbn=978-0-14-192719-0 |pages=344–345, 347–348, 350–351}}
</ref> Disbanded in December 1945, the MPAJA officially turned in its weapons to the [[British Military Administration (Malaya)|British Military Administration]], although many MPAJA soldiers secretly hid stockpiles of weapons in jungle hideouts. Members who agreed to disband were offered economic incentives. Around 4,000 members rejected these incentives and went underground.<ref name="book_the_malayan_emergency_2008_jackson" />

The MNLA began their war for Malayan independence from the British Empire by targeting the colonial [[natural resource|resource]] extraction industries, namely the tin mines and rubber plantations which were the main sources of income for the British occupation of Malaya. The MNLA attacked these industries in the hopes of bankrupting the British and winning independence by making the colonial administration too expensive to maintain.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

[[File:Malayan Emergency Bren Gun.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Commonwealth propaganda leaflet dropped across Malaya, urging people to come forward with a [[Bren light machine gun|Bren]] gun and receive a [[Malayan dollar|$]]1,000 reward]]{{History of Malaysia}}
== Communist guerrilla strategies ==
The Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) employed guerrilla tactics, attacking military and police outposts, sabotaging rubber plantations and tin mines, while also destroying transport and communication infrastructure.<ref>{{cite book|last=Rashid|first=Rehman|year=1993|title=A Malaysian Journey|page=27|publisher=Rehman Rashid |isbn=983-99819-1-9}}</ref> Support for the MNLA mainly came from the 3.12 million [[Malaysian Chinese|ethnic Chinese]] living in Malaya, many of whom were farmers living on the edges of the Malayan jungles and had been politically influenced by both the [[Chinese Communist Revolution]] and the resistance against Japan during WWII. Their support allowed the MNLA to supply themselves with food, medicine, information, and provided a source of new recruits.<ref name="O. Tilman 1966 407–419">{{cite journal|last=Tilman|first=Robert O.|title=The non-lessons of the Malayan emergency|journal=Asian Survey|date=August 1966|volume=6|issue=8|pages=407–419|doi=10.2307/2642468 |jstor=2642468|url=https://online.ucpress.edu/as/article-abstract/6/8/407/24029/The-Non-Lessons-of-the-Malayan-Emergency?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-access=subscription}}</ref> The ethnic [[Malays (ethnic group)|Malay]] population supported them in smaller numbers. The MNLA gained the support of the Chinese because the Chinese were denied the equal right to vote in elections, had no land rights to speak of, and were usually very poor.{{sfnp|Christopher|2013|p=53}} The MNLA's supply organisation was called the [[Min Yuen]] (People's Movement). It had a network of contacts within the general population. Besides supplying material, especially food, it was also important to the MNLA as a source of intelligence.{{sfnp|Christopher|2013|p=58}} The MNLA and their supporters refer to the conflict as the Anti-British National Liberation War.<ref>{{cite book|first=Mohamed |last= Amin |editor-first= Malcolm |editor-last=Caldwell |title=The Making of a Neo Colony|year=1977|publisher=Spokesman Books, UK|page=216}}</ref>

The MNLA's camps and hideouts were in the inaccessible tropical jungle and had limited infrastructure. Almost 90% of MNLA guerrillas were ethnic Chinese, though there were some Malays, Indonesians and Indians among its members.<ref name=":2" /> The MNLA was organised into regiments, although these had no fixed establishments and each included all communist forces operating in a particular region. The regiments had political sections, [[commissar]]s, instructors and secret service. In the camps, the soldiers attended lectures on [[Marxism–Leninism]], and produced political newsletters to be distributed to civilians.{{sfnp|Komer|1972|p=7}}

In the early stages of the conflict, the guerrillas envisaged establishing control in "liberated areas" from which the government forces had been driven, but did not succeed in this.{{sfnp|Komer|1972|p=9}}

== British and Commonwealth strategies ==
[[File:SC protection team.jpg|thumb|left|Workers on a rubber plantation in Malaya travel to work under the protection of [[Special Constable]]s, whose function was to guard them throughout the working day against attack by communist forces, 1950.]]

During the first two years of the Emergency, British forces conducted a 'counter-terror,' characterised by high levels of state coercion against civilian populations; including sweeps, cordons, large-scale deportation, and capital charges against suspected guerrillas.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Hack |first=Karl |date=28 September 2012 |title=Everyone Lived in fear: Malaya and the British way of counter-insurgency |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09592318.2012.709764 |journal=Small Wars & Counterinsurgencies |volume=23 |issue=4–5 |pages=682–684 |doi=10.1080/09592318.2012.709764 |via=Taylor & Francis Online |s2cid=143847349}}</ref> Police corruption and the British military's widespread destruction of farmland and burning of homes belonging to villagers rumoured to be helping communists, led to a sharp increase in civilians joining the MNLA and communist movement. However, these tactics also prevented the communists from establishing liberated areas (the MCPs first, and foremost objective), successfully broke up larger guerrilla formations, and shifted the MNLA's plan of securing territory, to one of widespread sabotage.<ref name=":3" />

Commonwealth forces struggled to fight guerrillas who moved freely in the jungle and enjoyed support from rural Chinese populations. British planters and miners, who bore the brunt of the communist attacks, began to talk about government incompetence and being betrayed by Whitehall.<ref>Souchou Yao. 2016. The Malayan Emergency A Small Distant War. Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Monograph series, no. 133. p. 43.</ref>

The initial government strategy was primarily to guard important economic targets, such as mines and plantation estates. In April 1950, General Sir [[Harold Rawdon Briggs|Harold Briggs]], most famous for implementing the [[Briggs Plan]], was appointed to Malaya. The central tenet of the Briggs Plan was to segregate MNLA guerrillas from their supporters among the population. A major component of the Briggs Plan involved targeting the MNLA's food supplies, which were supplied from three main sources: food grown by the MNLA in the jungle, food supplied by the Orang Asli aboriginal people living in the deep jungle, and MNLA supporters within the 'squatter' communities on the jungle fringes.<ref name="O. Tilman 1966 407–419" />

[[File:Terrorist in Malaya.jpg|thumb|A wounded suspected MNLA supporter being held and questioned after his capture in 1952]]

The Briggs Plan also included the forced relocation of some 500,000 rural Malayans, including 400,000 Chinese civilians, into internment camps called "[[new village]]s". These internment camps were surrounded by barbed wire, police posts, and floodlit areas, all designed to stop the inmates from contacting and supplying MNLA guerrillas in the jungles, segregating the communists from their civilian supporters.<ref name=Mann13>{{cite book |last1=Mann |first1=Michael |title=The Sources of Social Power. Volume 4: Globalizations, 1945–2011|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/sources-of-social-power/CE8493644C4615FD156312944E725F02 |date=2013 |quote=A bloody ten-year civil war, the Malayan Emergency was finally won by British forces using scorched earth tactics, including the invention of forcible relocation of villages into areas controlled by British forces.|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |isbn=9781107028678 |page=16}}</ref><ref name=BFBS21>{{cite web |title=The Malayan Emergency – Britain's Vietnam, Except Britain Won |url=https://www.forces.net/heritage/history/malayan-emergency-britains-vietnam-except-britain-won |website=Forces Network|date=4 October 2021|quote=One of these strategies was the 'Scorched Earth Policy' which saw the first use of Agent Orange – a herbicide designed to kill anything that it came in contact with.|location=Gerrards Cross|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211005003131/https://www.forces.net/heritage/history/malayan-emergency-britains-vietnam-except-britain-won|archive-date=5 October 2021|url-status=live|publisher=[[British Forces Broadcasting Service]] |language=en}}</ref>

In 1948 the British had 13 infantry battalions in Malaya, including seven partly formed [[Gurkha]] battalions, three British battalions, two battalions of the [[Royal Malay Regiment]] and a [[Royal Artillery]] Regiment being used as infantry.<ref name="Hack:113">Karl Hack, ''Defense & Decolonisation in South-East Asia'', p. 113.</ref>

The Permanent Secretary of Defence for [[Federation of Malaya|Malaya]], Sir [[Robert Grainger Ker Thompson]], had served in the [[Chindits]] in Burma during World War II. Thompson's in-depth experience of [[jungle warfare]] proved invaluable during this period as he was able to build effective civil-military relations and was one of the chief architects of the counter-insurgency plan in Malaya.<ref>Joel E. Hamby. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070219203036/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KNN/is_32/ai_105853016 "Civil-military operations: joint doctrine and the Malayan Emergency"], ''Joint Force Quarterly'', Autumn 2002, Paragraph 3,4</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Peoples |first=Curtis |url=http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/2002_Symposium/2002Papers_files/peoples.htm |title=The Use of the British Village Resettlement Model in Malaya and Vietnam, 4th Triennial Symposium (April 11–13, 2002), The Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech University |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071226023950/http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/2002_Symposium/2002Papers_files/peoples.htm |archive-date=26 December 2007}}</ref>

In 1951, the British High Commissioner in Malaya, Sir [[Henry Gurney]], was killed near [[Fraser's Hill]] during an MNLA ambush. General [[Gerald Templer]] was chosen to become the new High Commissioner in January 1952. During Templer's two-year command, "two-thirds of the guerrillas were wiped out and lost over half their strength, the incident rate fell from 500 to less than 100 per month and the civilian and security force casualties from 200 to less than 40."<ref>{{cite book | last=Clutterbuck | first=Richard | title=Conflict and violence in Singapore and Malaysia 1945–83 | year=1985 | publisher=Graham Brash | location=Singapore}}</ref> Orthodox historiography suggests that Templer changed the situation in the Emergency and his [[The Templer Plan|actions and policies]] were a major part of British success during his period in command. Revisionist historians have challenged this view and frequently support the ideas of [[Victor Purcell]], a Sinologist who as early as 1954 claimed that Templer merely continued policies begun by his predecessors.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Ramakrishna |first=Kumar |date=February 2001 |title='Transmogrifying' Malaya: The Impact of Sir Gerald Templer (1952–54) |journal=Journal of Southeast Asian Studies |publisher=Cambridge University Press |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=79–92  |doi=10.1017/S0022463401000030  |jstor=20072300|s2cid=159660378 }}</ref>

===Control of anti-guerrilla operations===
[[File:Police in Malayan Emergency.jpg|thumb|Police officers question a civilian during the Malayan Emergency.]]

At all levels of the Malayan government (national, state, and district levels), the military and civil authority was assumed by a committee of military, police and civilian administration officials. This allowed intelligence from all sources to be rapidly evaluated and disseminated and also allowed all anti-guerrilla measures to be co-ordinated.<ref name="conduct_1958_chap_3">Conduct of Anti-Terrorist Operations in Malaya, Director of Operations, Malaya, 1958, Chapter III: Own Forces</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=This appears to be a primary document written during the war. Need to find a secondary source for this in the near future|date=June 2023}}

Each of the Malay states had a State War Executive Committee which included the State Chief Minister as chairman, the Chief Police Officer, the senior military commander, state home guard officer, state financial officer, state information officer, executive secretary, and up to six selected community leaders. The Police, Military, and Home Guard representatives and the Secretary formed the operations sub-committee responsible for the day-to-day direction of emergency operations. The operations subcommittees as a whole made joint decisions.<ref name="conduct_1958_chap_3" />{{Better source needed|reason=This appears to be a primary document written during the war. Need to find a secondary source for this in the near future|date=June 2023}}

==== Agent Orange ====
{{further|Agent Orange}}

During the Malayan Emergency, Britain became the first nation in history to make use of [[herbicides]] and [[defoliants]] as a military weapon. It was used to destroy bushes, food crops, and trees to deprive the guerrillas of both food and cover, playing a role in Britain's food denial campaign during the early 1950s.<ref name=Hay82>{{cite book |last1=Hay |first1=Alastair |url=https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4899-0339-6 |title=The Chemical Scythe: Lessons of 2, 4, 5-T, and dioxin |date=1982 |publisher=[[Springer Nature|Plenum Press / Springer Nature]] |isbn=9780306409738 |location=New York |pages=149–150 |doi=10.1007/978-1-4899-0339-6 |quote=It was the British who were actually the first to use herbicides in the Malayan 'Emergency'...To circumvent surprise attacks on their troops the British Military Authorities used 2,4,5-T to increase visibility in the mixed vegetation |author-link=Alastair Hay |s2cid=29278382}}</ref><ref name=JaWa21>{{cite book |last1=Jacob |first1=Claus |url=https://www.worldscientific.com/worldscibooks/10.1142/12189 |title=Ethics of Chemistry: From Poison Gas to Climate Engineering |last2=Walters |first2=Adam |date=2021 |publisher=[[World Scientific]] |isbn=978-981-123-353-1 |editor-last1=Schummer |editor-first1=Joachim |location=Singapore |pages=169–194 |chapter=Risk and Responsibility in Chemical Research: The Case of Agent Orange |doi=10.1142/12189 |editor-last2=Børsen |editor-first2=Tom |s2cid=233837382}}</ref> A variety of herbicides were used to clear [[lines of communication]] and destroy food crops as part of this strategy. One of the herbicides, was a 50:50 mixture of butyl esters of [[2,4,5-T]] and [[2,4-D]] with the brand name brand name Trioxone. This mixture was virtually identical to the later Agent Orange, though Trioxone likely had a heavier contamination of the health-damaging dioxin impurity.<ref name="NewScientist">{{cite magazine |date=19 January 1984 |title=How Britain Sprayed Malaya with Dioxin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=I_lWnBp1GUMC |magazine=New Scientist |volume=101 |pages=6–7 |issn=0262-4079 |number=1393}}</ref>

In 1952, Trioxone and mixtures of the aforementioned herbicides, were sprayed along a number of key roads. From June to October 1952, {{convert|1,250|acre|abbr=off|order=flip}} of roadside vegetation at possible ambush points were sprayed with defoliant, described as a policy of "national importance".{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} The experts advised that the use of herbicides and defoliants for clearing the roadside could be effectively replaced by removing vegetation by hand and the spraying was stopped.<ref name="NewScientist" /> However, after that strategy failed,{{citation needed|date=June 2023}} the use of herbicides and defoliants in effort to fight the guerrillas was restarted under the command of  [[Gerald Templer]] in February 1953 as a means of destroying food crops grown by communist forces in jungle clearings. [[Helicopters]] and [[fixed-wing aircraft]] despatched [[sodium trichloroacetate]] and Trioxone, along with pellets of [[(2-Chlorophenyl)thiourea|chlorophenyl]] [[N,N-Dimethyl-1-naphthylamine|N,N-dimethyl-1-naphthylamine]] onto crops such as [[sweet potatoes]] and [[maize]]. Many Commonwealth personnel who handled and/or used Trioxone during the conflict suffered from serious exposure to dioxin and Trioxone. An estimated 10,000 civilians and guerrilla in Malaya also suffered from the effects of the defoliant, but many historians think that the number is much larger since Trioxone was used on a large scale in the Malayan conflict and, unlike the US, the British government limited information about its use to avoid negative global public opinion. The prolonged absence of vegetation caused by defoliation also resulted in major [[soil erosion]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Pesticide Dilemma in the Third World: A Case Study of Malaysia |publisher=Phoenix Press |year=1984 |page=23}}</ref>

Following the end of the Emergency, [[US Secretary of State]] [[Dean Rusk]] advised [[US President]] [[John F. Kennedy]] that the precedent of using herbicide in warfare had been established by the British through their use of aircraft to spray herbicide and thus destroy enemy crops and thin the thick jungle of northern Malaya.<ref name="USE">{{cite book |author=Bruce Cumings |title=The Global Politics of Pesticides: Forging Consensus from Conflicting Interests |publisher=[[Earthscan]] |year=1998 |page=61}}</ref><ref name="Pamela Sodhy 1991 284–290" />

===Nature of warfare===
[[File:The Malayan Emergency 1948-1960 MAL35.jpg|thumb|Malayan Police conducting a patrol around the [[Belum-Temengor|Temenggor]], 1953]]
The British Army soon realised that clumsy sweeps by large formations were unproductive.{{sfnp|Nagl|2002|pp=67–70}} Instead, platoons or sections carried out patrols and laid ambushes, based on intelligence from various sources, including informers, surrendered MNLA personnel, aerial reconnaissance and so on. An operation named "Nassau", carried out in the [[Kuala Langat]] swamp is described in ''The Guerrilla – and how to Fight Him''{{Efn|Fleet Marine Force Reference Publication (FMFRP) 12-25,'The Guerrilla - And How To Fight Him'}} ): <!-- This is an absolutely massive colossal block of text to describe conditions which could be explained in a single paragraph. --> {{blockquote|On 7 July, two additional companies were assigned to the area; patrolling and harassing fires were intensified. Three terrorists surrendered and one of them led a platoon patrol to the terrorist leader's camp. The patrol attacked the camp, killing four, including the leader. Other patrols accounted for four more; by the end of July, twenty-three terrorists remained in the swamp with no food or communications with the outside world.

This was the nature of operations: 60,000 artillery shells, 30,000 rounds of mortar ammunition, and 2,000 aircraft bombs for 35 terrorists killed or captured. Each one represented 1,500 man-days of patrolling or waiting in ambushes. "Nassau" was considered a success for the end of the emergency was one step nearer.<ref>Taber, ''The War of the Flea'', pp.140–141. Quote from Marine Corps Schools, "Small Unit Operations" in ''The Guerrilla – and how to Fight Him''</ref>}}MNLA guerrillas had numerous advantages over Commonwealth forces since they lived in closer proximity to villagers, they sometimes had relatives or close friends in the village, and they were not afraid to threaten violence or torture and murder village leaders as an example to the others, which forced them to assist them with food and information. British forces thus faced a dual threat: the MNLA guerrillas and the silent network in villages who supported them. British troops often described the terror of jungle patrols. In addition to watching out for MNLA guerrillas, they had to navigate difficult terrain and avoid dangerous animals and insects. Many patrols would stay in the jungle for days, even weeks, without encountering the MNLA guerrillas. That strategy led to the infamous [[Batang Kali massacre]] in which 24 unarmed villagers were executed by British troops.<ref name="MAY" /><ref name="MAL" />

Royal Air Force activities, grouped under "Operation Firedog" included ground attacks in support of troops and the transport of supplies. The RAF used a wide mixture of aircraft to attack MNLA positions: from the new [[Avro Lincoln]] heavy bomber to [[Short Sunderland]] flying boats. Jets were used in the conflict when [[de Havilland Vampire]]s replaced Spitfires of [[No. 60 Squadron RAF]] in 1950 and were used for ground attack.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.raf.mod.uk/organisation/60squadron.cfm |title=60(R) Squadron |work=Royal Air Force |year=2016 |access-date=9 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160306151633/http://www.raf.mod.uk/organisation/60Squadron.cfm |archive-date=6 March 2016 }}</ref> Jet bombers came with the [[English Electric Canberra]] in 1955 The [[No. 194 Squadron RAF|Casualty Evacuation Flight]] was formed in early 1953 to bring the wounded out of the jungles; it used early helicopters such as the [[Westland Dragonfly]], landing in small clearings <ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/operation-firedog-the-raf.html | title=Operation Firedog: The RAF in Malaya -1948-1960 | date=31 October 2018 |website=War History Online |first1=Dean |last1=Smith |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230811154813/https://www.warhistoryonline.com/instant-articles/operation-firedog-the-raf.html |archive-date= Aug 11, 2023 }}</ref> The RAF progressed to using [[Westland Whirlwind (helicopter)|Westland Whirlwind]] helicopters to deploy troops in the jungle.

The MNLA was vastly outnumbered by the British forces and their Commonwealth and colonial allies in terms of regular full-time soldiers. Siding with the British occupation were a maximum of 40,000 British and other Commonwealth troops, 250,000 Home Guard members, and 66,000 police agents. Supporting the communists were 7,000+ communist guerrillas (1951 peak), an estimated 1,000,000 sympathisers, and an unknown number of civilian [[Min Yuen]] supporters and [[Orang Asli]] sympathisers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Hack|first=Karl|date=2012|title=Everyone lived in fear: Malaya and the British way of counter-insurgency|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09592318.2012.709764|journal=Small Wars and Insurgencies|volume=23|issue=4–5|pages=671–699|doi=10.1080/09592318.2012.709764|s2cid=143847349|via=Taylor & Francis Online}}</ref>

==Commonwealth contribution==
Commonwealth forces from Africa and the Pacific fought on the side of the British backed Federation of Malaya during the Malayan Emergency. These forces included troops from Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, Kenya, [[Nyasaland]], [[Northern Rhodesia|Northern]] and [[Southern Rhodesia]].<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Malayan Campaign 1948–60 |last=Scurr |first=John |publisher=Osprey Publishing |location=Oxford |year=2005 |orig-year=1981 |isbn=978-0-85045-476-5}}</ref>

===Australia and Pacific Commonwealth forces===
{{Main|Military history of Australia during the Malayan Emergency}}
Australian ground forces first joined the Malayan Emergency in 1955 with the deployment of the [[2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment]] (2 RAR).<ref name="awm.gov.au">{{cite web|title=Malayan Emergency, 1950–60|url=http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/emergency.asp|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080503033039/http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/emergency.asp|archive-date=3 May 2008|access-date=23 October 2011|publisher=Australian War Memorial}}</ref> The 2 RAR was later replaced by [[3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment|3 RAR]], which in turn was replaced by [[1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment|1 RAR]]. The [[Royal Australian Air Force]] contributed [[No. 1 Squadron RAAF|No. 1 Squadron]] ([[Avro Lincoln]] bombers) and [[No. 38 Squadron RAAF|No. 38 Squadron]] ([[Douglas C-47 Skytrain|C-47]] transports). In 1955, the RAAF extended [[RAAF Base Butterworth|Butterworth air base]], from which [[English Electric Canberra|Canberra]] bombers of [[No. 2 Squadron RAAF|No. 2 Squadron]] (replacing No. 1 Squadron) and [[CAC Sabre]]s of [[No. 78 Wing RAAF|No. 78 Wing]] carried out ground attack missions against the guerrillas. The [[Royal Australian Navy]] destroyers {{HMAS|Warramunga|I44|2}} and {{HMAS|Arunta|I30|2}} joined the force in June 1955. Between 1956 and 1960, the aircraft carriers {{HMAS|Melbourne|R21|2}} and {{HMAS|Sydney|1944|2}} and destroyers {{HMAS|Anzac|D59|2}}, {{HMAS|Quadrant|G11|2}}, {{HMAS|Queenborough|G30|2}}, {{HMAS|Quiberon|G81|2}}, {{HMAS|Quickmatch|G92|2}}, {{HMAS|Tobruk|D37|2}}, {{HMAS|Vampire|D11|2}}, {{HMAS|Vendetta|D08|2}} and {{HMAS|Voyager|D04|2}} were attached to the [[Far East Strategic Reserve|Commonwealth Strategic Reserve]] forces for three to nine months at a time. Several of the destroyers fired on communist positions in [[Johor]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}{{Main|Military history of New Zealand in Malaysia}}
New Zealand's first contribution came in 1949, when [[Douglas C-47 Skytrain|Douglas C-47 Dakotas]] of [[No. 41 Squadron RNZAF|RNZAF No. 41 Squadron]] were attached to the [[Royal Air Force]]'s [[RAF Far East Air Force|Far East Air Force]]. New Zealand became more directly involved in the conflict in 1955; from May, RNZAF [[de Havilland Vampire]]s and [[de Havilland Venom|Venoms]] began to fly strike missions. In November 1955 133 soldiers of what was to become the [[Special Air Service of New Zealand]] arrived from Singapore, for training in-country with the British SAS, beginning operations by April 1956. The [[Royal New Zealand Air Force]] continued to carry out strike missions with Venoms of [[No. 14 Squadron RNZAF|No. 14 Squadron]]<ref>Ian McGibbon (Ed.), (2000). ''The Oxford Companion to New Zealand Military History.'' p.294.</ref> and later [[No. 75 Squadron RNZAF|No. 75 Squadron]] [[English Electric Canberra]]s bombers, as well as supply-dropping operations in support of anti-guerrilla forces, using the [[Bristol Freighter]]. A total of 1,300 New Zealanders were stationed in Malaya between 1948 and 1964, and fifteen lost their lives.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}} Approximately 1,600 Fijian troops were involved in the Malayan Emergency from 1952 to 1956.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.fijisun.com.fj/2014/01/30/documentary-to-explore-fijian-malaysian-links/|title=Documentary To Explore Fijian, Malaysian Links |access-date=13 September 2014 |work=Fiji Sun |date=30 January 2014|archive-date=3 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210103183752/https://fijisun.com.fj/2014/01/30/documentary-to-explore-fijian-malaysian-links/|url-status=live }}</ref> The experience was captured in the documentary, ''Back to Batu Pahat''.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

===African Commonwealth forces===
{{Main|Southern Rhodesian military involvement in the Malayan Emergency}}
[[File:C Squadron (Rhodesian) SAS, 1953.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|[[Rhodesian Special Air Service|"C" Squadron]], the all-Southern Rhodesian unit of the Special Air Service (SAS), in Malaya in 1953|alt=A formative black-and-white photograph of military personnel. The men wear khaki shirts and shorts with long, dark-coloured socks. They all wear dark berets.]]
[[Southern Rhodesia]] and its successor, the [[Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland]], contributed two units to Malaya. Between 1951 and 1953, white Southern Rhodesian volunteers formed [[Rhodesian Special Air Service|"C" Squadron]] of the [[Special Air Service]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Binda |first=Alexandre |title=Masodja: The History of the Rhodesian African Rifles and its forerunner the Rhodesian Native Regiment |date=November 2007 |publisher=30° South Publishers |isbn=978-1920143039 |editor-last=Heppenstall |editor-first=David |location=Johannesburg |page=127}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Shortt |first1=James |url=https://archive.org/details/specialairservic00libg |title=The Special Air Service |publisher=Osprey Publishing |others=illustrated by Angus McBride |year=1981 |isbn=0-85045-396-8 |series=Men-at-arms 116 |location=Oxford |pages=[https://archive.org/details/specialairservic00libg/page/n19 19]–20 |author-link1= |url-access=limited}}</ref> The [[Rhodesian African Rifles]], comprising black soldiers and [[warrant officer]]s led by white officers, were stationed in Johor between 1956 and 1958.<ref>{{cite book |last=Binda |first=Alexandre |title=Masodja: The History of the Rhodesian African Rifles and its forerunner the Rhodesian Native Regiment |date=November 2007 |publisher=30° South Publishers |isbn=978-1920143039 |editor-last=Heppenstall |editor-first=David |location=Johannesburg |pages=127–128}}</ref> The [[King's African Rifles]] from [[Nyasaland]], [[Northern Rhodesia]] and [[Kenya]] were also deployed to Malaya.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

=== Iban mercenaries ===
The British Empire hired thousands of mercenaries hailing from the [[Iban people]] (a subgroup of the [[Dayak people]]) of Borneo to fight against the [[Malayan National Liberation Army]]. During their service they were widely praised for their jungle and [[bushcraft]] skills. Though their military effectiveness and behaviour during the war has been brought into question.

Their deployment received a large amount of both positive and negative attention in British media. They were also responsible for a number of atrocities, most notably the decapitation and scalping of suspected pro-independence guerrillas. Photographs of this practice were leaked in 1952, sparking the [[British Malayan headhunting scandal]]. In 1953 most Ibans in Malaya joined the reformed [[Sarawak Rangers]], transitioning them from mercenaries into regular soldiers.

According to a former member of the Sarawak Rangers, Ibans served with at least 42 separate battalions in the Malayan Emergency belonging to either British or Commonwealth militaries.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abdullah |first=Robert Rizal |title=The Iban Trackers and the Sarawak Rangers 1948–1963 |publisher=UNIMAS |year=2019 |location=Kota Samarahan |pages=37, 39}}</ref>

Iban mercenaries were first deployed to [[British Malaya]] by the British Empire to fight in the Malayan Emergency on the 8 August where they served [[Ferret Force]]. Many were motivated to fight with the hope that they could collect the heads and scalps of their enemies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Poole |first=Dan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V1HcEAAAQBAJ&q=%22The%20British%20military%E2%80%99s%20deployment%20of%20Ibans%20during%20the%20Malayan%20Emergency%20began%20on%20August%208%2C%201948%22 |title=Head Hunters in the Malayan Emergency: The Atrocity and Cover-Up |publisher=Pen & Sword Military |year=2023 |isbn=978-1399057417 |pages=xx-xxi}}</ref>

Their deployment was supported by the British politician [[Arthur Creech Jones]], then serving as the [[Secretary of State for the Colonies]] who agreed to deploy Ibans to the Malayan Emergency for three months. Amid rumours that the Iban mercenaries they deployed were practiced headhunters, all Ibans serving with the British were removed from British Malaya and quietly redeployed in 1949 and served for the entirety of the war until its end in 1960.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Poole |first=Dan |title=Head Hunters in the Malayan Emergency: The Atrocity and Cover-Up |publisher=Pen & Sword Military |year=2023 |isbn=978-1399057417 |pages=xxi}}</ref>

Some historians have argued that the British military's use of Ibans stemmed from stereotypes that "primitive" people enjoyed a closer relationship with nature than Europeans.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Sioh |first=Maureen Kim Lian |url=https://open.library.ubc.ca/soa/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses/831/items/1.0089657 |title=Fractured reflections : rainforests, plantations and the Malaysian nation-state |publisher=University of British Columbia |year=2000 |pages=113 |doi=10.14288/1.0089657}}</ref> Others have argued that the British army's deployment and treatment of the Ibans during the Malayan Emergency reflected the British military's history regarding what they perceived as 'martial races'.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hack |first=Karl |url=https://doi.org/10.1017/9781139942515 |title=The Malayan Emergency: Revolution and Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2021 |isbn=9781139942515 |pages=318–319 |doi=10.1017/9781139942515}}</ref>

The deployment of Iban mercenaries recruited to fight in the Malayan Emergency was a widely publicised topic in the British press. Many newspapers articles contained titles referring to the Iban cultural practice of headhunting and contained articles portraying Ibans as violent and primitive while being friendly towards white Europeans. While many newspaper articles incorrectly argued that Ibans deployed to Malaya were no longer headhunters, others put forward arguments that Ibans in Malaya should be allowed to openly decapitate and scalp members of the MNLA.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Poole |first=Dan |title=Head Hunters in the Malayan Emergency: The Atrocity and Cover-Up |publisher=Pen & Sword Military |year=2023 |pages=xxiv-xxvi}}</ref>

The Iban mercenaries deployed to Malaya were widely praised for their jungle bushcraft skills, although some British and Commonwealth officers found that Ibans were outperformed in this role by recruits from Africa and certain parts of the Commonwealth. The behaviour of Iban mercenaries serving in Malaya was also the subject of criticism, as some Iban recruits were found to have looted corpses and others had threatened their commanding officers with weapons. Due to fears of racial tensions with ethnic Malays the Iban mercenaries that Britain deployed to Malaya were denied access to automatic weapons.<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Poole |first=Dan |title=Head Hunters in the Malayan Emergency: The Atrocity and Cover-Up |publisher=Pen & Sword Military |year=2023 |isbn=978-1399057417 |pages=xxiii - xxiv}}</ref>

There were also communication difficulties as virtually all the Iban recruits in Malaya were illiterate and most British troops serving alongside them had no prior experience with Asian languages. Some Iban mercenaries refused to go on patrol after receving bad omens in their dreams. Iban society had no social classes making it difficult for them to adhere to military ranks. Some Royal Marines complained that their Iban allies were inaccurate with firearm, and Ibans were both the victims and perpetrators of an unusual amount of friendly fire incidents. The first Iban casualty of the war was a man called Jaweng ak Jugah who was shot dead after being mistaken for a "communist terrorist".<ref name=":12" />

At the beginning of the Malayan Emergency, the Ibans serving the British were classified as civilians and were thus awarded British and Commonwealth medals reserved for civilians. In one example, the Iban mercenary [[Awang anak Raweng]], was awarded the [[George Cross]] in 1951 after he allegedly repelled an attack of 50 MNLA guerrillas.<ref name=":03">{{Cite book |last=Poole |first=Dan |title=Head Hunters in the Malayan Emergency: The Atrocity and Cover-Up |publisher=Pen & Sword Military |year=2023 |isbn=978-1399057417 |pages=xxi}}</ref> Another example is Menggong anak Panggit who was awarded the [[George Medal]] in 1953.

In 1953 Ibans in Malaya were given their own regiment, the [[Sarawak Rangers]]. Many would go onto fight during the [[Second Malayan Emergency]].

== The October Resolution ==
In 1951 the MNLA implemented the October Resolution.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_aPdeJinXGwC&pg=PA298 |title=Dialogues with Chin Peng: New Light on the Malayan Communist Party |author1=C. C. Chin |author2=Hack, Karl |publisher=NUS Press|year= 2004|isbn=9789971692872}}</ref> The October Resolution involved a change of tactics by the MNLA by reducing attacks on economic targets and civilian collaborators, redirecting their efforts towards political organisation and subversion, and bolstering the supply network from the [[Min Yuen]] as well as jungle farming and was a response to the Briggs Plan.

[[File:Chin Peng wanted by Malaya.jpg|thumb|Headline on page 1 of ''[[The Straits Times]]'' of 1952. [[Chin Peng]]: Public Enemy No.1]]

== Amnesty declaration ==
On 8 September 1955, the Government of the Federation of Malaya issued a declaration of amnesty to the communists.<ref>Memorandum from the Chief Minister and Minister for Internal and Security, No. 386/17/56, 30 April 1956. CO1030/30</ref> The Government of Singapore issued an identical offer at the same time. [[Tunku Abdul Rahman]], as Chief Minister, offered amnesty but rejected negotiations with the MNLA. The amnesty read that:
* Those of you who come in and surrender will not be prosecuted for any offence connected with the Emergency, which you have committed under Communist direction, either before this date or in ignorance of this declaration.
* You may surrender now and to whom you like including to members of the public.
* There will be no general "ceasefire" but the security forces will be on alert to help those who wish to accept this offer and for this purpose local "ceasefire" will be arranged.
* The Government will conduct investigations on those who surrender. Those who show that they are genuinely intent to be loyal to the Government of Malaya and to give up their Communist activities will be helped to regain their normal position in society and be reunited with their families. As regards the remainder, restrictions will have to be placed on their liberty but if any of them wish to go to China, their request will be given due consideration.<ref name="ReferenceA">Prof Madya Dr. Nik Anuar Nik Mahmud, Tunku Abdul Rahman and His Role in the Baling Talks</ref>{{Better source needed|reason=This citation has no page numbers|date=June 2023}}

Following this amnesty declaration, an intensive publicity campaign was launched by the government. Alliance ministers in the Federal Government travelled extensively across Malaya exhorting civilians to call upon communist forces to surrender their weapons and accept the amnesty. Despite the campaign, few Communist guerrillas chose to surrender. Some political activists criticised the amnesty for being too restrictive and for being a rewording of earlier well established surrender offers. These critics advocated for direct negotiations with the communist guerrillas of the MNLA and MCP to work on a peace settlement. Leading officials of the [[Labour Party of Malaya|Labour Party]] had, as part of the settlement, not excluded the possibility of recognition of the MCP as a political organisation. Within the Alliance itself, influential elements in both the [[Malaysian Chinese Association|MCA]] and [[United Malays National Organisation|UMNO]] were endeavouring to persuade the Chief Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, to hold negotiations with the MCP.<ref name="ReferenceA"/>{{Better source needed|reason=This citation has no page numbers|date=June 2023}}

===Baling Talks and their consequences===
{{Main|Baling Talks}}
[[File:Malya Emergency British Artillery.jpg|thumb|left|British artillery firing on MNLA guerrillas in the Malayan jungle, 1955]]
In 1955 Chin Peng indicated that he would be willing to meet with British officials alongside senior Malayan politicians. The result of this was the Baling Talks, a meeting which took place between communist and Commonwealth forces to debate a peace treaty. The Baling Talks took place inside an English School in [[Baling]] on 28 December 1955. The MCP and MNLA was represented by [[Chin Peng]], [[Rashid Maidin]], and [[Chen Tien]]. The Commonwealth forces were represented by [[Tunku Abdul Rahman]], [[Tan Cheng Lock|Tan Cheng-Lock]] and [[David Marshall (Singaporean politician)|David Saul Marshall]].{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}} Despite the meeting being conducted successfully, the British forces were worried that a peace treaty with the MCP would lead to communist activists regaining influence in society. As a result, many of Chin Peng's demands were dismissed.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

Following the failure of the talks, Tunku Abdul Rahman withdraw the amnesty offers for MNLA members on 8 February 1956, five months after they had been offered, stating he was unwilling to meet the communists again unless they indicated beforehand their intention to make "a complete surrender".<ref>MacGillivray to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 15 March 1956, CO1030/22</ref>

Following the failure of the Baling Talks, the MCP made various efforts to resume peace negotiations with the Malayan government, all without success. Meanwhile, discussions began in the new Emergency Operations Council to intensify the "People's War" against the guerrillas. In July 1957, a few weeks before independence, the MCP made another attempt at peace talks, suggesting the following conditions for a negotiated peace:{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}
* its members should be given privileges enjoyed by citizens
* a guarantee that political as well as armed members of the MCP would not be punished

The failure of the talks affected MCP policy. The strength of the MNLA and 'Min Yuen' declined to 1830 members in August 1957. Those who remained faced exile, or death in the jungle. However, Tunku Abdul Rahman did not respond to the MCP's proposals. Following the declaration of Malaya's independence in August 1957, the MNLA lost its rationale as a force of colonial liberation.{{Citation needed|date=June 2023}}

The last serious resistance from MNLA guerrillas ended with a surrender in the [[Telok Anson]] marsh area in 1958. The remaining MNLA forces fled to the [[Thailand|Thai border]] and further east. On 31 July 1960 the Malayan government declared the state of emergency over, and Chin Peng left south Thailand for Beijing where he was accommodated by the Chinese authorities in the International Liaison Bureau, where many other Southeast Asian Communist Party leaders were housed.<ref>Garver, J. W. (2016). China's Quest: The History of the Foreign Relations of the People's Republic of China. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. pp 216</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=<!--Check author names--> |first= |title=Former communist leader dies |language=en |work=Bangkok Post |url=https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/politics/370041/former-communist-leader-dies |access-date=4 January 2023}}</ref>

==Casualties==
During the conflict, security forces killed 6,710 MNLA guerrillas and captured 1,287, while 2,702 guerrillas surrendered during the conflict, and approximately 500 more did so at its conclusion. A total of 226 guerrillas were executed. 1,346 Malayan troops and police were killed during the fighting.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/my_polic.html |title=Royal Malaysian Police (Malaysia) |publisher=Crwflags.com |access-date=3 January 2014 |archive-date=14 August 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180814232634/https://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/my_polic.html |url-status=live }}</ref> 1,443 British personnel died, in what remains the largest loss of life among UK armed forces since the Second World War.<ref>{{cite web |title=UK Armed Forces Deaths: Operational deaths post World War II |url=https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/512070/20160331_UK_Armed_Forces_Operational_deaths_post_World_War_II.O.pdf |website=GOV.UK |publisher=Ministry of Defence |access-date=2 September 2023 |ref=UK MoD |page=5 |date=31 March 2016}}</ref> 2,478 civilians were killed, with another 810 recorded as missing.<ref name="Smith">{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IY9MDAAAQBAJ&q=519+Commonwealth+2,478+civilians&pg=PT52 |title=Long Tan: The Start of a Lifelong Battle |last=Smith |first=Harry |date=1 August 2015 |publisher=Big Sky Publishing |isbn=9781922132321 |language=en |access-date=1 November 2020 |archive-date=3 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210103183715/https://books.google.com/books?id=IY9MDAAAQBAJ&q=519+Commonwealth+2%2C478+civilians&pg=PT52 |url-status=live |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><!-- No page numbers?
The citation includes a link to a google books site which shows me where the casualty numbers are, but this strange book appears to have no page numbers.
How are we supposed to cite a book with no page numbers? -->

==Atrocities==
[[File:Protest at Dunlop shareholder meeting, 1952.png|thumb|British soldiers raid [[Dunlop Rubber|Dunlop Rubber's]] annual shareholder meeting to protest against Britain's involvement in the Malayan Emergency]]

===Commonwealth===
====Torture====
During the Malayan conflict, there were instances during operations to find MNLA guerrillas where British troops detained and allegedly [[torture]]d villagers who were suspected of aiding the MNLA. Socialist historian Brian Lapping said that there was "some vicious conduct by the British forces, who routinely beat up Chinese [[Squatting|squatters]] when they refused, or possibly were unable, to give information" about the MNLA.{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}} ''[[The Scotsman]]'' newspaper lauded these tactics as a good practice since "simple-minded peasants are told and come to believe that the communist leaders are invulnerable".{{Citation needed|date=December 2021}} Some civilians and detainees were also allegedly shot, either because they attempted to flee from and potentially aid the MNLA or simply because they refused to give intelligence to British forces.{{citation needed|date=December 2021}}

Widespread use of arbitrary detention, punitive actions against villages, and use of torture by the police, "created animosity" between Chinese squatters and British forces in Malaya which was counterproductive to gathering good intelligence.<ref name="MAY">{{citation |last=Siver |first=Christi |title=The Other Forgotten War: Understanding Atrocities during the Malayan Emergency |date=2009 |work=Political Science Faculty Publications. 8 |url=http://digitalcommons.csbsju.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1014&context=polsci_pubs |publisher=College of Saint Benedict and Saint John's University |quote=<!-- Prepared for delivery at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association,
September 3-6, 2009 -->}}</ref>{{page needed|date=December 2021}} <!--p38-39 -->

====Batang Kali Massacre====
During the [[Batang Kali massacre]], 24 unarmed civilians were executed by the [[Scots Guard]]s near a rubber plantation at Sungai Rimoh near [[Batang Kali]] in [[Selangor]] in December 1948. All the victims were male, ranging in age from young teenage boys to elderly men.{{sfn|Hack|2018|p=210}} Many of the victims' bodies were found to have been mutilated and their village of Batang Kali was burned to the ground. No weapons were found when the village was searched. The only survivor of the massacre was a man named Chong Hong who was in his 20s at the time. He fainted and was presumed dead.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/09/malaya-massacre-villagers-coverup|title=New documents reveal cover-up of 1948 British 'massacre' of villagers in Malaya|newspaper=The Guardian|date=9 April 2011|access-date=4 December 2013|archive-date=30 September 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930043116/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/09/malaya-massacre-villagers-coverup|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.thesundaily.my/news/868710|title=Batang Kali massacre families snubbed|newspaper=The Sun Daily|date=29 October 2013|access-date=4 December 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131211224000/http://www.thesundaily.my/news/868710|archive-date=11 December 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/18/malaysia-petition-batang-kali-massacre|title=UK urged to accept responsibility for 1948 Batang Kali massacre in Malaya|newspaper=[[The Guardian]]|date=18 June 2013|access-date=4 December 2013|archive-date=3 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210103183747/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jun/18/malaysia-petition-batang-kali-massacre|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-19473258|title=Malaysian lose fight for 1948 'massacre' inquiry|website=BBC News|date=4 September 2012|access-date=13 January 2014|archive-date=3 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210103183737/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-19473258|url-status=live}}</ref> Soon afterwards the British colonial government staged a coverup of British military abuses which served to obfuscate the exact details of the massacre.{{sfn|Hack|2018|p=212}}

The massacre later became the focus of decades of legal battles between the UK government and the families of the civilians executed by British troops. According to Christi Silver, Batang Kali was notable in that it was the only incident of mass killings by Commonwealth forces during the war, which Silver attributes to the unique subculture of the Scots Guards and poor enforcement of discipline by junior officers.<ref>Siver, Christi L. "The other forgotten war: understanding atrocities during the Malayan Emergency." In APSA 2009 Toronto Meeting Paper. 2009.</ref>{{page needed|date=December 2021}}

====Internment camps====
As part of the [[Briggs Plan]] devised by British General Sir [[Harold Rawdon Briggs|Harold Briggs]], 500,000 people (roughly ten percent of Malaya's population) were forced from their homes by British forces. Tens of thousands of homes were destroyed, and many people were imprisoned in British [[Internment Camp|internment camp]]s called "[[new village]]s". During the Malayan Emergency, 450 new villages were created. The policy aimed to inflict [[collective punishment]] on villages where people were thought to support communism, and also to isolate civilians from guerrilla activity. Many of the forced evictions involved the destruction of existing settlements which went beyond the justification of [[military necessity]]. This practice is now prohibited by Article 17 (1) of Additional [[Protocol II]] to the [[Geneva Conventions]], which forbid civilian internment unless rendered absolutely necessary by military operations.<ref name="Gifu">{{cite web|url=https://ihl-databases.icrc.org/en/ihl-treaties/apii-1977/article-17|title=Protocol Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, and relating to the Protection of Victims of Non-International Armed Conflicts (Protocol II), 8 June 1977.: Article 17 - Prohibition of forced movement of civilians|publisher=International Humanitarian Law Databases}}</ref> <ref name="MAY"/><ref name="MAL">{{cite book |author=Fujio Hara |title=Malaysian Chinese & China: Conversion in Identity Consciousness, 1945–1957 |date=December 2002 |publisher=University of Hawaii Press |pages=61–65}}</ref><ref name="Pamela Sodhy 1991 284–290">{{cite book |title=The US-Malaysian Nexus: Themes in Superpower-Small State Relations |pages=284–290 |publisher=Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia |author=Pamela Sodhy |year=1991}}</ref>

====Collective punishment====
A key British war measure was inflicting collective punishments on villages whose population were deemed to be aiding MNLA guerrillas. At [[Tanjung Malim|Tanjong Malim]] in March 1952, Templer imposed a twenty-two-hour house [[curfew]], banned everyone from leaving the village, closed the schools, stopped bus services, and reduced the rice rations for 20,000 people. The last measure prompted the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to write to the Colonial Office to note that the "chronically undernourished Malayan" might not be able to survive as a result. "This measure is bound to result in an increase, not only of sickness but also of deaths, particularly amongst the mothers and very young children". Some people were fined for leaving their homes to use external latrines. In another collective punishment, at [[Sungai Pelek|Sengei Pelek]] the following month, measures included a house curfew, a reduction of 40 percent in the rice ration and the construction of a chain-link fence 22 yards outside the existing barbed wire fence around the town. Officials explained that the measures were being imposed upon the 4,000 villagers "for their continually supplying food" to the MNLA and "because they did not give information to the authorities".<ref>{{cite book |author=Pamela Sodhy |title=The US-Malaysian nexus: Themes in superpower-small state relations |publisher=Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia |year=1991 |pages=356–365}}</ref>

====Deportations====
{{more detail needed|date="November 2021}}Over the course of the war, some 30,000 mostly ethnic Chinese were deported by the British authorities to mainland China.<ref name="the_malayan_emergency_2021_11_11_the_forum_bbc" /><ref>Chin, C. (2012). Dialogues with Chin Peng: New Light on the Malayan Communist Party. Chinese Edition.</ref> This would have been a war crime under Article 17 (2) of Additional Protocol II to the Geneva Conventions, which states: "Civilians shall not be compelled to leave their own territory for reasons connected with the conflict."<ref name="Gifu" />

==== Public display of corpses ====
During the Emergency it was common practice for British forces and their allies to publicly display the corpses of suspected communists and anti-colonial guerrillas. This was often done in the centers of towns and villages. Oftentimes British and Commonwealth troops would round up local children and forced them to look at the corpses, monitoring their emotional reaction for clues on whether they knew the dead. Many of the corpses publicly displayed by British forces belonged to guerrillas who had previously been allies of Britain during WWII.<ref name=":6">{{Cite book |last=Poole |first=Dan |title=Head Hunters in the Malayan Emergency: The Atrocity and Cover-Up |publisher=Pen and Sword Military |year=2023 |isbn=978-1399057417 |pages=83–84}}</ref>

A notable victim of these public corpse displays was MNLA guerrilla leader [[Liew Kon Kim]], whose corpse was publicly displayed in locations around British Malaya. At least two instances of public corpse displays by British forces in Malaya gained notable media attention in Britain, and were later dubbed "The Telok Anson Tragedy" and "The Kulim Tragedy".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Poole |first=Dan |title=Head Hunters in the Malayan Emergency: The Atrocity and Cover-Up |publisher=Pen and Sword Military |year=2023 |isbn=978-1399057417 |pages=86}}</ref>

====Headhunting and scalping====
[[File:This Horror Must End.jpg|thumb|A '' [[Morning Star (British newspaper)|Daily Worker]]'' article exposing newly uncovered images of British atrocities involving headhunting during the Malayan Emergency]]
During the war British and Commonwealth forces hired over 1,000 [[Iban people|Iban]] (Dyak) mercenaries from [[Borneo]] to act as jungle trackers.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Poole |first=Dan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eVHcEAAAQBAJ&dq=It+was+also+revealed+that+Britain+had+recruited+over+1,000+mercenaries+from+the+Iban+people+of+Borneo&pg=PR11 |title=Head Hunters in the Malayan Emergency: The Atrocity and Cover-Up |publisher=Pen & Sword Military |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-39905-741-7 |location=[[Yorkshire]] |page=XI |language=en}}</ref> With a tradition of headhunting, they decapitated suspected MNLA members; the authorities held that taking the heads was the only means of later identification.<ref name=":1">{{cite book |last=Harrison |first=Simon |title=Dark Trophies: Hunting and the Enemy Body in Modern War |publisher=Berghahn |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-78238-520-2 |location=Oxford |pages=157–158 |language=English}}</ref> Iban headhunters were permitted by British military leaders to keep the scalps of corpses as trophies.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hack |first=Karl |title=The Malayan Emergency: Revolution and Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2022 |location=Cambridge |pages=318}}</ref><ref name=":1" /> After the headhunting had been exposed to the public, the Foreign Office first tried to deny it was in use, before then trying to justify Iban headhunting and conducting damage control in the press.<ref name=":4">{{cite book |last=Hack |first=Karl |title=The Malayan Emergency: Revolution and Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2022 |location=Cambridge |pages=316}}</ref> Privately, the Colonial Office noted that "there is no doubt that under [[international law]] a similar case in wartime would be a war crime".<ref name="MAL" /><ref name="Mark Curtis 61–71">{{cite book |author=Mark Curtis |title=The Ambiguities of Power: British Foreign Policy Since 1945 |date=15 August 1995 |pages=61–71}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> Skull fragments from a trophy head were later found to have been displayed in a British regimental museum.<ref name=":1" />

=====Headhunting exposed to British public=====
{{Main|British Malayan headhunting scandal}}

In April 1952, the [[Communist Party of Great Britain|British communist]] newspaper the ''[[Morning Star (British newspaper)|Daily Worker]]'' (later known as the ''Morning Star'') published a photograph of British [[Royal Marines]] inside a British military base openly posing with severed human heads.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Hack |first=Karl |title=The Malayan Emergency: Revolution and Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2022 |location=Cambridge |pages=315}}</ref> By republishing these images the British communists had hoped to turn public opinion against the war.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Creech |first=Maria |date=December 2021 |title=All Too Graphic: Leaked photographs of colonial atrocities during the Malayan 'Emergency' shocked postwar Britain |url=https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/all-too-graphic |journal=[[History Today]] |volume=71 |issue=12}}</ref> Initially British government spokespersons belonging to the [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]] and the [[Colonial Office]] claimed the photograph was fake. In response to the accusations that their headhunting photograph was fake, the ''Daily Worker'' released another photograph taken in Malaya showing British soldiers posing with a severed head. Later the Colonial Secretary, [[Oliver Lyttelton]], confirmed to parliament that the ''Daily Worker'' headhunting photographs were indeed genuine.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Peng |first1=Chin |title=Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History |last2=Ward |first2=Ian |last3=Miraflor |first3=Norma |publisher=Media Masters |year=2003 |isbn=981-04-8693-6 |location=Singapore |pages=302}}</ref> In response to the ''Daily Worker'' articles exposing the decapitation of MNLA suspects, the practice was banned by Winston Churchill who feared that such photographs resulting from headhunting would expose the British for their brutality.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{cite book |last=Hack |first=Karl |title=The Malayan Emergency: Revolution and Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2022 |location=Cambridge |pages=317}}</ref> However, Churchill's order to discontinue the decapitations was widely ignored by Iban trackers who continued to behead suspected guerrillas.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Poole |first=Dan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eVHcEAAAQBAJ&dq=ignored+by+British+soldiers+and+the+decapitation&pg=PA23 |title=Head Hunters in the Malayan Emergency: The Atrocity and Cover-Up |publisher=Pen & Sword Military |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-39905-741-7 |location=[[Yorkshire]] |page=23 |language=en}}</ref>

Despite the shocking imagery of the photographs of soldiers posing with severed heads in Malaya, the ''Daily Worker'' was the only newspaper to publish them and the photographs were virtually ignored by the [[List of newspapers in the United Kingdom|mainstream British press]].<ref name=":4" /><gallery>
File:Malayan Emergency Iban headhunter.jpg|alt=|An Iban headhunter wearing a Royal Marine beret prepares a human scalp above a basket of human body parts.
File:Iban headhunter holding scalp during Malayan Emergency.jpg|An Iban headhunter posing with a human scalp
File:This is the War in Malaya.jpg|The ''Daily Worker'' exposes the practice of headhunting among British troops in Malaya. 28 April 1952.
File:Headhunters Malayan Emergency.jpg|Commonwealth soldiers pose with a severed head inside a British military base in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency
File:Malayan Emergency headhunting and poles.jpg|Two corpses and a severed head belonging to guerrillas killed by the [[Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment]].
File:Photo collection of British atrocities during the Malayan Emergency.png|Atrocity photographs (including headhunting) from the archives of the [[Working Class Movement Library]], Manchester.
File:Beheaded MNLA guerrilla, Malayan Emergency.png|Decapitated head of MNLA guerrilla commander Hen Yan, killed in 1952 by the [[Suffolk Regiment]].
File:Suspected MNLA guerrilla decapitated by British or Commonwealth during Malayan Emergency.png|Photographs of decapitated MNLA member held in the archives of the [[National Army Museum]], London.
</gallery>

==Comparisons with Vietnam==
This military conflict had a similarity to the [[First Indochina War]] in [[South Vietnam|Vietnam]], as they were both ideological and colonial wars while the indigenous states were highly autonomous.<ref name=bragg>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aqHeOthIyysC&q=%C3%89lys%C3%A9e+Accords&pg=PA82|title=Vietnam, Korea and US Foreign Policy|last=Bragg|first=Christine|date=2005|publisher=Heinemann|isbn=978-0-435-32708-8|language=en}}</ref><ref name=indian>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PXQ--1YJhy8C&q=%C3%89lys%C3%A9e+Accords&pg=PA24|title=Indian Foreign Policy in Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, 1947-1964|last=SarDesai|first=D. R.|date=1968|publisher=University of California Press|language=en}}</ref><ref name=duiker>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ECWRqcj3rGIC&q=%C3%89lys%C3%A9e+Accords&pg=PA69|title=U.S. Containment Policy and the Conflict in Indochina|last=Duiker|first=William|date=1994-07-01|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-6581-7|language=en}}</ref><ref>Deery, Phillip. "Malaya, 1948: Britain's Asian Cold War?" Journal of Cold War Studies 9, no. 1 (2007): 29–54.</ref><ref name="Siver, Christi L 2009. p.36">Siver, Christi L. "The other forgotten war: understanding atrocities during the Malayan Emergency." In APSA 2009 Toronto Meeting Paper. 2009., p.36</ref>{{sfn|Newsinger|2013|p=217}}<ref>{{Cite book|title=Small Wars, Faraway Places: Global Insurrection and the Making of the Modern World 1945–1965 |last=Burleigh |first=Michael |publisher=Viking – Penguin Group |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-670-02545-9 |location=New York|page=164}}</ref>

===Differences===
[[Image:Jungle service dress.JPG|thumb|upright=0.8|Jungle service dress of the [[Somerset Light Infantry|1st Battalion Somerset Light Infantry]] used in the emergency]]

This conflict and the [[Vietnam War]] have often been compared.<ref name="the_malayan_emergency_2021_11_11_the_forum_bbc" /> However, the two conflicts differ in the following ways:
* The MNLA never numbered more than about 8,000 full-time insurgents, but the [[People's Army of Vietnam|People's Army of (North) Vietnam]] fielded a quarter of a million [[Regular army|regular troops]], in addition to roughly 100,000 [[Viet Cong|National Liberation Front (or Viet Cong)]] partisans.
* The Viet Cong were agents of the government of [[North Vietnam]] and could count on substantial support from their government; the MNLA had no such domestic state support.
* North Korea,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/1427367.stm |title=N Korea admits Vietnam war role |work=BBC News |author=Gluck, Caroline |access-date=7 July 2001 |archive-date=3 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210103183714/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/1427367.stm |url-status=live }}</ref> Cuba<ref>Bourne, Peter G. ''Fidel: A Biography of Fidel Castro'' (1986) p. 255; Coltman, Leycester ''The Real Fidel Castro'' (2003) p. 211</ref> and the People's Republic of China (PRC) provided military hardware, logistical support, personnel and training to North Vietnam, whereas the MNLA received no material support, weapons or training from any foreign government.
* North Vietnam's shared border with its ally China (PRC) allowed for continuous assistance and provided a safe haven for communist forces, but Malaya's only land border is with non-communist Thailand.
* Britain did not approach the Emergency as a conventional conflict and quickly implemented an effective intelligence strategy, led by the Malayan Police Special Branch, and a systematic [[Winning hearts and minds|hearts and minds]] operation, both of which proved effective against the largely ''political'' aims of the guerrilla movement.<ref>Comber (2006), ''Malaya's Secret Police 1945–60. The Role of the Special Branch in the Malayan Emergency''</ref><ref name="Clutterbuck">{{cite book|last=Clutterbuck|first=Richard|title=The long long war: The emergency in Malaya, 1948–1960|publisher=Cassell|year=1967}} Cited at length in Vietnam War essay on Insurgency and Counterinsurgency [https://web.archive.org/web/20071020064959/http://ehistory.osu.edu/vietnam/essays/insurgency/0006.cfm Lessons from Malaya], eHistory, Ohio State University.</ref>
* The British military recognised that in a low-intensity war, individual soldiers' skill and endurance were of far greater importance than overwhelming firepower (artillery, air support, etc.). Even though many British soldiers were conscripted [[Conscription in the United Kingdom#After 1945|National Servicemen]], the necessary skills and attitudes were taught at a Jungle Warfare School, which also developed the optimum tactics based on experience gained in the field.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/download/csipubs/historic/hist_c3_pt1.pdf |work=British Operations in Malaya and Borneo, 1948-1966 |publisher=US Army, Combat Studies Institute |title=Analysis of British tactics in Malaya |url-status=dead |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20080911061212/http://www-cgsc.army.mil/carl/download/csipubs/historic/hist_c3_pt1.pdf |archive-date=11 September 2008 |pages=1–120}}</ref>
* Vietnam was less ethnically fragmented than Malaya. During the Emergency, most MNLA members were ethnically [[Malaysian Chinese|Chinese]] and drew support from sections of the Chinese community.{{sfnp|Komer|1972|p=53}} However, most of the more numerous indigenous [[Malays (ethnic group)|Malays]], many of whom were animated by [[anti-Chinese sentiment]]s, largely remained loyal to the government and enlisted in high numbers into the security services.{{sfnp|Komer|1972|p=13}}

===Similarities===
The United States in Vietnam were highly influenced by Britain's military strategies during the Malayan Emergency and the two wars shared many similarities. Some examples are listed below.
* Both countries used Agent Orange. Britain pioneered the use of Agent Orange as a weapon of war during the Malayan Emergency. This fact was used by the United States as a justification to use Agent Orange in Vietnam.
* Both the [[Royal Air Force]] and the [[United States Air Force]] used widespread [[Saturation bombardment|saturation bombing]].
* Both countries frequently used [[Internment Camp|internment camps]]. In Malaya, internment camps called [[New village|"new villages"]] were built by the British colonial occupation to imprison approximately 400,000 rural peasants. The United States attempted to replicate the new villages with their [[Strategic Hamlet Program]]. However, the Strategic Hamlets were unsuccessful in segregating communist guerrillas from their civilian supporters.
* Both countries made use of incendiary weapons, including flamethrowers and incendiary grenades.
* Both the Malayan and Vietnamese communists recruited women as fighters due to their beliefs in [[Marxist feminism|gender equality]]. Women served as generals in both communist armies, with notable examples being [[Lee Meng]] in Malaya and [[Nguyễn Thị Định]] in Vietnam.
* Both the Malayan and Vietnamese communists were led by veterans of WWII who had been trained by their future enemies. The British trained and funded the [[Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army]] whose veterans would go onto resist the British colonial occupation, and the United States trained Vietnamese communists to fight against Japan during WWII.

==Legacy==
[[File:Tugu Negara.jpg|thumb|The [[Tugu Negara|National Monument]] commemorating those who died in Malaysia's struggle for freedom, including the Malayan Emergency]]

The [[Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation]] of 1963–1966 arose from tensions between Indonesia and the new British backed [[Malaysia|Federation of Malaysia]] that was conceived in the aftermath of the Malayan Emergency.

In the late 1960s, the coverage of the [[My Lai massacre]] during the [[Vietnam War]] prompted the initiation of investigations in the UK concerning war crimes perpetrated by British forces during the Emergency, such as the [[Batang Kali massacre]]. No charges have yet been brought against the British forces involved and the claims have been repeatedly dismissed by the British government as propaganda, despite evidence suggestive of a cover-up.<ref>{{cite news |last=Townsend |first=Mark |title=New documents reveal cover-up of 1948 British 'massacre' of villagers in Malaya |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/09/malaya-massacre-villagers-coverup |work=The Guardian |access-date=15 April 2011 |location=London |date=9 April 2011 |archive-date=30 September 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930043116/http://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/apr/09/malaya-massacre-villagers-coverup |url-status=live }}</ref>

Following the end of the Malayan Emergency in 1960, the predominantly [[Malaysian Chinese|ethnic Chinese]] [[Malayan National Liberation Army]], the armed wing of the MCP, retreated to the [[Malaysia–Thailand border]] where it regrouped and retrained for future offensives against the Malaysian government. A new phase of [[communist insurgency in Malaysia (1968–89)|communist insurgency]] began in 1968. It was triggered when the MCP ambushed security forces in [[Kroh|Kroh–Betong]], in the northern part of [[Peninsular Malaysia]], on 17 June 1968. The new conflict coincided with renewed tensions between ethnic [[Malay people|Malays]] and [[Malaysian Chinese|Chinese]] following the [[13 May incident]] of 1969, and the ongoing [[Vietnam War]].{{sfnp|Nazar Bin Talib|2005|pp=16–17}}

Communist leader [[Chin Peng]] spent much of the 1990s and early 2000s working to promote his perspective of the Emergency. In a collaboration with Australian academics, he met with historians and former Commonwealth military personnel at a series of meetings which led to the publication of ''Dialogues with Chin Peng: New Light on the Malayan Communist Party.''<ref>{{Cite web|title=Dialogues with Chin Peng – New Light on the Malayan Communist Party|url=https://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/dialogues-with-chin-peng|website=National University of Singapore|access-date=17 May 2020|archive-date=3 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210103183651/https://nuspress.nus.edu.sg/products/dialogues-with-chin-peng|url-status=live}}</ref> Peng also travelled to England and teamed up with conservative journalist Ian Ward and his wife Norma Miraflor to write his autobiography ''[[Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|title = Alias Chin Peng: My Side of History|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UaluAAAAMAAJ&q=alias+chin+peng|isbn = 9789810486938|access-date = 17 May 2020|last1 = Chin|first1 = Peng|last2 = Ward|first2 = Ian|last3 = Miraflor|first3 = Norma O.|year = 2003| publisher=Media Masters |archive-date = 3 January 2021|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210103183734/https://books.google.com/books?id=UaluAAAAMAAJ&q=alias+chin+peng|url-status = live}}</ref>

Many colonial documents, possibly relating to British atrocities in Malaya, were either destroyed or hidden by the British colonial authorities as a part of [[Operation Legacy]]. Traces of these documents were rediscovered during a legal battle in 2011 involving the victims of rape and torture by the British military during the [[Mau Mau uprising]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Sato|first=Shohei|date=2017|title='Operation Legacy': Britain's Destruction and Concealment of Colonial Records Worldwide|journal=The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History|volume=45|issue=4|pages=698, 697–719|doi=10.1080/03086534.2017.1294256|s2cid=159611286|issn=0308-6534|doi-access=free}}</ref>

== List of battles/incidents during the Malayan Emergency ==
{{Incomplete list|date=August 2024}}
* [[Assassination of Sir Henry Gurney]]
* [[Batang Kali massacre]]
* [[Battle of Semur River]]
* [[Bukit Kepong incident]]
* [[Labis incident]]
* [[Operation Termite]]
* [[Penang ambush]]
* [[Sungai Siput incident]]

==In popular culture==
{{Category see also|Works about the Malayan Emergency}}
In popular Malaysian culture, the Emergency has frequently been portrayed as a primarily Malay struggle against the communists. This perception has been criticised by some, such as Information Minister [[Zainuddin Maidin]], for not recognising [[Malaysian Chinese|Chinese]] and [[Malaysian Indians|Indian]] efforts.<ref>Kaur, Manjit (16 December 2006). [http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2006/12/16/nation/16341437&sec=nation "Zam: Chinese too fought against communists"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604031429/http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=%2F2006%2F12%2F16%2Fnation%2F16341437&sec=nation |date=4 June 2011 }}. ''The Star''.</ref>

A number of films were set during the Emergency, including:
* ''[[The Planter's Wife (1952 film)|The Planter's Wife]]'' (1952)
* ''[[Windom's Way]]'' (1957)
* ''[[The 7th Dawn]]'' (1964)
* ''[[The Virgin Soldiers (film)|The Virgin Soldiers]]'' (1969)
* ''[[Stand Up, Virgin Soldiers]]'' (1977)
* ''[[Bukit Kepong (film)|Bukit Kepong]]'' (1981)
* [[The Garden of Evening Mists (film)|''The Garden of Evening Mists'']] (2019)

Other media:
* [[Mona Brand]]'s stage production ''Strangers in the Land'' (1952) was created as political commentary to criticise the occupation, depicting plantation owners as burning down villages and collecting the heads of murdered Malayans as trophies.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Linstrum|first=Erik|date=2017|title=Facts About Atrocity: Reporting Colonial Violence in Postwar Britain|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/hwj/dbx032|journal=History Workshop Journal|volume=84|pages=108–127|doi=10.1093/hwj/dbx032|via=Oxford Academic}}</ref> The play was only performed in the UK at the tiny activist run Unity Theater because the British government had banned the play from commercial stages.<ref name=":0" />
* ''[[The Malayan Trilogy]]'' series of novels (1956–1959) by [[Anthony Burgess]] is set during the Malayan Emergency.
* In ''[[The Sweeney]]'' episode "The Bigger They Are" (series 4, episode 8; 26 October 1978), the tycoon Leonard Gold is being blackmailed by Harold Collins, who has a photo of him present at a massacre of civilians in Malaya when he was in the British Army twenty-five years earlier.
* Throughout the series ''[[Porridge (1974 TV series)|Porridge]]'', there are references to Fletcher having served in Malaya, probably as a result of [[Conscription in the United Kingdom|National Service]]. He regales his fellow inmates with stories of his time there, and in one episode it is revealed that Prison Officer Mackay had also served in Malaya.
* ''[[Pennyworth (TV series)|Pennyworth]]''

==See also==
* [[Batang Kali massacre]]
* [[Battle of Semur River]]
* [[Briggs Plan]]
* [[British Far East Command]]
* {{section link|British war crimes|Malaya}}
* [[Bukit Kepong incident]]
* [[Chin Peng]]
* [[Cold War in Asia]]
* [[Communist insurgency in Malaysia (1968–89)]]
* [[Far East Strategic Reserve|Far East Strategic Reserve (FESR)]]
* [[History of Malaysia]]
* [[List of weapons in Malayan Emergency]]
* [[Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army]]
* [[New village]]

==Notes==
{{notelist}}

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Sources===
* {{cite book|last=Christopher|first=Paul|chapter=Malaya, 1948–1955: Case Outcome: COIN Win|title=Paths to Victory: Detailed Insurgency Case Studies|publisher=|year=2013|isbn=|location=|pages=51–63}}
* {{cite book |last=Komer|first=R.W|date=February 1972|title=The Malayan Emergency in Retrospect: Organisation of a Successful Counterinsurgency Effort |publisher=Rand Corporation|isbn=|location=|pages=|url=https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reports/2005/R957.pdf|access-date=12 May 2019|archive-date=3 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210103183706/https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/reports/2005/R957.pdf|url-status=live}}
* {{Cite book |last=Newsinger |first=John |authorlink=John Newsinger |title=The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British Empire|edition= 2nd |publisher=Bookmarks Publications |year=2013 |isbn=9781909026292 |location=London }}
* {{Cite book |last=Newsinger |first=John |title=British Counterinsurgency |edition=2nd |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2015 |isbn=978-0-230-29824-8|location=Basingstoke }}
* {{Cite journal |last=Hack |first=Karl |date=2018 |title='Devils that suck the blood of the Malayan People': The Case for Post-Revisionist Analysis of Counter-insurgency Violence |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0968344516671738 |journal=War in History |volume=25|issue=2 |doi=10.1177/0968344516671738 |s2cid=159509434 |via=Sage Journals |pages=202–226 |url-access=subscription}}
* {{cite book|last=Taber|first=Robert|year=2002|title=War of the flea: the classic study of guerrilla warfare|publisher=Brassey's|isbn=978-1-57488-555-2|location=|url=https://archive.org/details/waroffleaclassic00tabe}}
* {{Cite thesis |author=Nazar Bin Talib |title=Malaysia's Experience In War Against Communist Insurgency And Its Relevance To The Present Situation In Iraq |degree=Masters thesis |publisher=[[Marine Corps University]] |url=https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA505882.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604230420/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA505882 |url-status=live |archive-date=4 June 2011 |year=2005 |access-date=6 January 2013}}{{bsn|reason=Per [[WP:SCHOLARSHIP]] masters are not generally considered reliable sources|date=December 2023}}

==Further reading==
{{Refbegin|30em}}
* {{cite book |last=Director of Operations |first=Malaya |year=1958 |title=The Conduct of Anti-Terrorist Operations in Malaya |publisher=Director of Operations Malaya |location=Federation of Malaya |pages= |isbn=1907521747}}
* {{cite journal |last=Comber |first=Leon |title=The Malayan Security Service (1945–1948) |journal=Intelligence and National Security |issue=3 |year=2003 |pages=128–153 |volume=18 |doi=10.1080/02684520412331306950 |s2cid=154320718 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02684520412331306950}}
* {{cite journal |last=Comber |first=Leon |title=The Malayan Special Branch on the Malayan-Thai Frontier during the Malayan Emergency |journal=Intelligence and National Security |volume=21 |issue=1 |date=February 2006 |pages=77–99 |doi=10.1080/02684520600568352 |s2cid=153496939}}
* {{cite book |last=Comber |first=Leon |year=2006 |isbn= |chapter=Malaya's Secret Police 1945–60. The Role of the Special Branch in the Malayan Emergency |title=PhD dissertation, Monash University |location=Melbourne |pages= |publisher=ISEAS (Institute of SE Asian Affairs, Singapore) and MAI (Monash Asia Institute)}}
* {{cite journal |last=Hack |first=Karl |date=1999 |title='Iron claws on Malaya': the historiography of the Malayan Emergency |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-southeast-asian-studies/article/abs/iron-claws-on-malaya-the-historiography-of-the-malayan-emergency1/14AB9D441A3E75DF21C96AE1FA223C59 |journal=Journal of Southeast Asian Studies |volume=30 |issue=1 |pages=99–125 |doi=10.1017/S0022463400008043 |s2cid=163010489 |url-access=subscription}}
* {{cite journal |last=Hack |first=Karl |year=1999 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02684529908432578 |url-access=subscription |pages=211–241 |title=Corpses, Prisoners of War and Captured documents: British and Communist Narratives of the Malayan Emergency, and the Dynamics of Intelligence Transformation |journal=Intelligence and National Security |issn=0268-4527 |volume=14 |issue=4 |doi=10.1080/02684529908432578}}
* {{cite book |last=Hack |first=Karl |year=2022 |title=The Malayan Emergency: Revolution and Counterinsurgency at the End of Empire |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9781107439481}}
* {{cite book |last=Jackson |first=Robert |year=2011 |title=The Malayan Emergency and Indonesian Confrontation: The Commonwealth's Wars 1948–1966 |publisher=Pen and Sword |isbn=9781848845558}}
* {{cite book |last=Jumper |first=Roy |year=2001 |title=Death Waits in the Dark: The Senoi Praaq, Malaysia's Killer Elite |publisher=Greenwood Press |isbn=0-313-31515-9 |location= |pages=}}
* {{cite journal |last=Keo |first=Bernard Z. |title=A small, distant war? Historiographical reflections on the Malayan Emergency |journal=History Compass |date=March 2019 |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/hic3.12523 |doi=10.1111/hic3.12523 |volume=17 |issue=3 |pages=e12523 |s2cid=150617654 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210103183725/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/hic3.12523 |archive-date=3 January 2021}}
* {{cite web |last=Mitchell |first=David F. |date=2016 |title=The Malayan Emergency: How to Fight a Counterinsurgency War |work=Warfare History Network |url=http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/military-history/the-malayan-emergency-how-to-fight-a-counterinsurgency-war/ |access-date=5 July 2018 |archive-date=3 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210103183710/https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/10/27/the-malayan-emergency-how-to-fight-a-counterinsurgency-war/ |url-status=live}}
* {{cite book |last=Nagl |first=John A. |year=2002 |title=Learning to Eat Soup With a Knife: Counterinsurgency Lessons from Malaya and Vietnam |publisher=University of Chicago |isbn=0-226-56770-2 |location= |pages= |url=https://archive.org/details/learningtoeatsou00john}}
* Newsinger, John. (2016) ''British counterinsurgency'' (Springer, 2016) compares British measures in Mayaya, Palestine, Kenya, Cyprus, South Yemen, Dhofar, & Northern Ireland
* Short, Anthony (1975). ''The Communist Insurrection in Malaya 1948–1960''. London and New York: Frederick Muller. Reprinted (2000) as ''In Pursuit of Mountain Rats''. Singapore.
* {{cite book |last=Stubbs |first=Richard |year=2004 |title=Hearts and Minds in Guerrilla Warfare: The Malayan Emergency 1948–1960 |publisher=Eastern University |isbn=981-210-352-X |location= |pages=}}
* Sullivan, Michael D. "Leadership in Counterinsurgency: A Tale of Two Leaders" ''Military Review'' (Sep/Oct 2007) 897#5 pp 119–123.
* {{cite journal |last=Th'ng |first=Bee Fu |year=2019 |title=Forbidden Knowledge: Response from Chinese-Malay Intellectuals to Leftist-Books Banning During the Emergency Period |journal=Sun Yat-sen Journal of Humanities |volume= |pages= |url=https://www.academia.edu/40326023 |access-date=15 September 2019 |via= |archive-date=3 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210103183717/https://www.academia.edu/40326023/%E6%96%B9%E7%BE%8E%E5%AF%8C_%E8%A2%AB%E7%A6%81%E6%AD%A2%E7%9A%84%E7%9F%A5%E8%AD%98_%E9%A6%AC%E4%BE%86%E4%BA%9E%E7%B7%8A%E6%80%A5%E7%8B%80%E6%85%8B%E4%B8%8B%E7%9F%A5%E8%AD%98%E4%BA%BA%E5%B0%8D%E6%8A%84%E6%AA%A2%E5%B7%A6%E6%B4%BE%E6%94%BF%E7%AD%96%E7%9A%84%E5%9B%9E%E6%87%89_Thng_Bee_Fu_Forbidden_Knowledge_Response_from_Chinese_Malay_Intellectuals_to_Leftist_Books_Banning_During_the_Emergency_Period |url-status=live |language=zh}}
* {{cite book |last=Thompson |first=Sir Robert |year=1966 |title=Defeating Communist Insurgency: The Lessons of Malaya and Vietnam |publisher=F. A. Praeger |location=London |pages= |isbn=0-7011-1133-X}}
* {{cite journal |last=Ucko |first=David H. |year=2019 |title=Counterinsurgency as armed reform: The political history of the Malayan Emergency |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01402390.2017.1406852 |journal=Journal of Strategic Studies |volume=42 |issue=3–4 |pages=448–479 |doi=10.1080/01402390.2017.1406852 |s2cid=158297553 |url-access=subscription}}
{{Refend}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Library resources box
|onlinebooks=no
|by=no
}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20010807010636/http://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/emergency.htm Australian War Memorial] ''(Malayan Emergency 1950–1960)''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928083748/http://fesrassociation.com/archives/toc.htm Far East Strategic Reserve Navy Association (Australia) Inc.] ''(Origins of the FESR – Navy)''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060712043107/http://www.anzacday.org.au/history/malaya/malayamain.html Malayan Emergency] ''(AUS/NZ Overview)''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060620092600/http://www.britains-smallwars.com/malaya/index.html Britain's Small Wars] ''(Malayan Emergency)''
* [http://www.psywar.org/malaya.php PsyWar.Org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210224161647/https://www.psywar.org/malaya.php |date=24 February 2021 }} ''(Psychological Operations during the Malayan Emergency)''
* [http://www.roll-of-honour.com/Databases/MalayaPostWW2/index.html www.roll-of-honour.com] ''(Searchable database of Commonwealth Soldiers who died)''
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20120402140726/http://brigandboys.org.uk/index.php A personal account of flying the Bristol Brigand aircraft with 84 Squadron RAF during the Malayan Emergency – Terry Stringer]
* [https://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/wars-and-missions/malayan-emergency-1948-1960 The Malayan Emergency 1948 to 1960] Anzac Portal

{{Communism in Malaysia}}
{{British colonial campaigns}}
{{Cold War}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Malayan Emergency| ]]
[[Category:1948 in military history]]
[[Category:Cold War conflicts]]
[[Category:Cold War rebellions]]
[[Category:Communism in Malaysia]]
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[[Category:Communist rebellions]]
[[Category:History of the Royal Marines]]
[[Category:Insurgencies in Asia]]
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[[Category:Guerrilla wars]]
[[Category:Cold War history of Australia]]
[[Category:Civil wars in Malaysia]]
[[Category:British Empire]]
[[Category:Decolonization]]
[[Category:Military operations involving chemical weapons]]
[[Category:Wars involving Australia]]
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[[Category:Wars involving New Zealand]]
[[Category:Wars involving Rhodesia]]
[[Category:Wars of independence]]