Thanks to its reputation as the one of the few successful counterinsurgencies of the twentieth century, the Malayan Emergency of the early 1950s has figured prominently in recent histories of military strategy. Yet an equally important context for the winning of "hearts and minds" is the model of rural development which dominated colonial policy at the same time and shared important features with the military campaign: the extensive use of propaganda, the close attention to personal relationships, and the delicate balance between coercion and persuasion. Why did British civilians and soldiers alike find it necessary to consider the thoughts and feelings of colonial subjects? Ultimately, officials embraced a psychological approach because their strategy for the postwar empire—the  diversion of popular aspirations from constitutional reform to economic improvement—required it.

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