The Great Power Struggle in East Asia, 1944-50 ― Britain, America and Post-war Rivalry

The first comprehensive account of British policy towards China, Japan and Korea from the final stages of the Second World War to the outbreak of the Korean War, placed in the broader context of Far Eastern developments, the beginnings of the Cold War, dealings with the Commonwealth and, above all, relations with the United States. Based upon research in British, American and Australian archives, this book examines the tensions that emerged within the Anglo-American relationship as the United States sought to dominate the East Asian agenda and Britain agonised over the international role it should play in the region. That tension intensified over what the British perceived as an American failure to devise a post-war plan for East Asia other than the containment of Japan. As Communist threats inside China and Korea gained momentum, Britain, with valuable Far Eastern interests to protect, could not afford the Asian mainland to turn ‘red’ and found itself drawn increasingly into East Asian affairs far more than it desired.

CHRISTOPHER BAXTER is a Research Fellow in Intelligence History at Queen’s University Belfast. He was formerly one of the Foreign Office’s resident historians and is currently working on the Official History of SIS (MI6) with Professor Keith Jeffery. He is the co-editor of Diplomats at War: British and Commonwealth Diplomacy in Wartime (2008).

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