Forging an 'American Empire and Commonwealth': American relations with its English-speaking allies over British Malaya and Singapore, 1941-1955

"Forging an 'American Empire and Commonwealth': American Relations with its English-Speaking Allies over British Malaya and Singapore, 1941-1954" by Mark Damon Smith discusses the attitudes and relationships between the United States, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, and the importance of the British colonies of Malaya and Singapore to the English-speaking powers from the beginning of the Pacific War to the creation of the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization in 1954. American Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, and their respective policymakers within their administrations studiously avoided defense commitments to Malaya and Singapore, even though the colonies were economically and strategically important to the United States, both directly and indirectly, until 1954. They avoided such commitments because of traditional American attitudes about colonialism, the relative unimportance of Southeast Asia to the United States until the late 1940s, and the understanding that the colonies were British areas of responsibility. But, larger United States national security concerns, increasing economic and defensive ties to Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, and fears of a Communist takeover in Southeast Asia, all combined to force the Eisenhower administration to formally accept the defense of the resource-rich and strategically vital British colonies under the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization in September 1954. In the end, the United States became the heir and protector to Britain's Empire and Commonwealth.;This process was an immensely complicated evolution. The United States accepted the return of the status quo ante bellum in 1945, and allowed the European powers to restore their sovereignty in Southeast Asia. In fact, the United States tried to neither actively assist or prevent the Europeans from returning to power. This non-policy was followed to allow the U.S. to be pro-European allies and anti-colonial at the same time. After 1948, with increasing Communist emphasis on Southeast Asia and wars of national liberation, the Americans became involved in Southeast Asia through propaganda and information services, and then economic and military aid. Eventually, the U.S. would intervene directly with ground forces in Vietnam in 1965.;From 1948 to 1954, the Americans first became involved in the Anglo-American alliance, then the Australia-New Zealand-United States defense pact, the Tripartite talks with Britain and France, and then the Five Power Liaison Group. In addition, the American allies of Britain, Australia, and New Zealand had formed the ANZAM group, which planned and conducted joint operations in the Malayan-Australasia area. The combination of all these military and diplomatic efforts, along with the apparent military and diplomatic defeats at Dienbienphu, pushed American policymakers to create another collective defense organization to stem the tide of Communist expansion in Southeast Asia, SEATO.