If you think it’s bad now, it’s gonna get worse in the coming years.
Reading and analysing what’s been happening around us for the past 10-20 years, it’s clear that we’re in a Nazi Germany situation. And when fascism will be here, we will ask “how did that happen?”
The future looks bleak.
Good question!
I read this factoid so many times that it didn’t even occur to me to even pinpoint the exact chronological timeline.
I realise now that I wrote way too much for such a simple question. Scroll down to the images for the answer to your question.
Right so I quickly searched online for any sorts of sources. Most of them cite pretty much nothing (ie. some form of circular reasoning) and take it for granted. See for example this.
Other articles, such as this one, which is a very good read to get the jist of the ‘Malayan Emergency’, and this (before anyone mentions it: yes I know this site is NED funded), mentioned a NewScientist article as the source.
Was able to find a subject index at first, but finally got to a secondary source.
But finally, I was able to find a list of primary sources here. A particularly capitalist quote I like to mention from the article is this, in the context of using defoliant for warfare:
I was also able to find an online conference/lecture regarding this topic here (it’s the second one, starting roughly 1hr in), for those interested.
Now for evidence of American inspiration; that I was unable to truly certify. A NYT article reiterated this claim (like the other articles mentioned), but it cites no sources.
But it really isn’t too much of stretch to assume that the Brits and Americans had shared intel over matters such as this. If anyone has any information on this do let me know.
We also have to keep in mind that the British purposefully burnt colonial records through the aptly named Operation Legacy (see also this;290-291 and The Guardian; for something less overly academic) before they finally left, leading to the Malaysia we know today.
In addition, the current Malaysian government doesn’t want to shine a light on to the communist ‘terrorists’, so the effect of ‘trioxone’ and its extent in Malaysia, is still unknown. And perhaps, it may never be known. It is just a sad, practically insignificant note in a vast and bloody battlefield that is history.
Thank you for a well-researched reply! I was just confused, because in my mind the first instance of chemical warfare was during WW1, what with Ypr and all.
But you shine a light on a very important topic of western crimes in Asia. Thank you
Yea, in my original comment I should have referred specifically to chemical defoliants akin to Agent Orange and similar.