Conclusion

Abstract

The origins of the Vietnam War are firmly rooted in a complex indigenous tussle against western imperialism in Southeast Asia at the close of the Second World War. Yet historians, for one reason or another, have often been too content to see British military operations in Vietnam and Cambodia (and subsequently in South Asia during the Kashmir crisis) within clear-cut paradigms. With Gracey’s actions in Vietnam often at the forefront of such analysis, it has become fashionable for academics to view his attempts at peace enforcement from a polarised perspective, either as part of the team for the prosecution of Gracey’s old-school imperialist mindset or as part of the counsel for the defence.