The Origins of the British Commonwealth Strategic Reserve: The UK Proposal to Revitalise ANZAM and the increased Australian Defence Commitment to Malaya

Abstract

At the end of 1952 the UK proposed to revitalise the ANZAM arrangement by concentrating it more closely on the defence of British interests in Malaya. Hitherto ANZAM had focused almost completely upon planning for the wartime defence of sea communications in the Southwest Pacific. This article explains why the UK sought to revitalise ANZAM, and why Australia accepted the British proposal. The British proposal arose from the adoption by the UK of a strategy of nuclear deterrence which led it to project both a future reduction of British conventional forces available for overseas commitments, and a greater reliance upon Commonwealth partners for the protection of British interests in Malaya. It also represented an attempt to reduce the value of the ANZUS security treaty, signed in early September 1951. Australia accepted the British proposal that Commonwealth partners should shoulder a heavier burden in Malaya as a way of preserving the value of ANZUS and of adjusting to the future reduction of the British military presence in Asia.