Conclusion

Abstract

The decision to withdraw from Britain’s major military bases East of Suez in the late 1960s was a landmark in Britain’s twentieth-century history. As has been shown, the process of reaching this decision was a complex one. It is impossible to identify one single cause at the cost of other important variables, rather like the case of the impressionist paintings of Claude Monet. His incremental additions of colours appear at first to be incomprehensible, but when seen at a distance they suddenly make sense: his famous water lilies elegantly floating in a pond in the morning light, in the daylight and in the twilight, are there for all to see. If one is allowed to compare his impressionist approach with Britain’s decision on ‘East of Suez’, it was for Britain a matter of water lilies. Over a number of years, the East of Suez role occupied much of the British governing elites’ time and energies. Their deliberations over this subject were closely related to Britain’s other problem: that is, how to maintain its power and influence in the post-war world.