While the United States began to withdraw from Vietnam after the Paris Peace Accords negotiated by Secretary of State Richard Helms; the United Kingdom began to see major troop deployments in their very own ‘Vietnam’ - Southern Arabia. The desert state (the Federation of Southern Arabia) had been founded under the leadership of the anti-communist ‘President’ Abdullah al Asnag, who had led the FLOSY (Front for the Liberation of Occupied South Yemen) before becoming the leader of the newly formed desert Republic.
‘Yemen’ had been a political and diplomatic flashpoint for well over a decade. In 1962 the northern Mutawakkilite Kingdom of ‘North’ Yemen was deposed in a coup d’etat led by Abdullah as-Sallal, who proclaimed himself President of the Yemen Arab Republic. The United Kingdom, along with the Saudis and Jordan, supported the Royalist partisans, who were in turn opposed by Republican forces, backed by the Soviet Union and Nasserite Egypt. Support for the Royalist forces was more of a tactical move on the part of then Foreign Secretary Richard Crossman, who was well aware of the added threat a Nasserite Yemeni regime could put on Israel. Until 1968 there was a limited British intervention in the North, which led to a Royalist victory later that year. This was aided by the Egyptian withdrawal in February of that year, taking as-Sallal and most high ranking officials in his regime, to Cairo.
The al Asnag regime was generally in a shaky positions from the get go. Much of the nation’s civil service was made up by either British officials, still conducting their affairs as if the nation continued to be under complete British control; the others were usually disloyal and uncommitted officials who were waiting for the moment to overthrow al Asnag, and instead impose an alternative regime in the nation. This coupled with the nation’s dicey relations with the surrounding nations, made al Asnag’s regime seem like the British version of the regime in Saigon.
To the north lay the Mutawakkilite Kingdom of ‘North’ Yemen ruled by the absolute monarchy, King Muhammad al-Badr since September 1962. Despite being a nominally independent nation, the desert Kingdom was in effect a puppet regime held up their Saudi allies to show to the world that an attempt to establish a Nasser-esque coup, could just as easily fail. Despite this and the over half a decade of civil war in the Mutawakkilite Kingdom, the Saudis began to pump investment and money into the nation’s economy and infrastructures, which appeared to pacify the locals for the time being. The regime was supported by most other gulf states, primarily fellow monarchies such as Jordan.
Beginning in 1970, a group of civil servants fled after an attempted toppling of al Asnag and his regime; fleeing to the east of the nation, where they established a regime from the remnants of the National Liberation Front (NLF) that had fought for South Arabian independence alongside al Asnag’s FLOSY. The group had since drifted officially to the left politically, becoming a self-admitted Marxist-Leninist group in 1969. This was less to do with ‘principal’ and more to do with a desire to receive aid, funding, and weapons from Moscow. A communist revolt had succeeded in nearby Somalia in 1969, bringing another potential supporter to their cause. Later in 1970 the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen was declared in the east, with the city of Al Ghaydah serving as the provisional capital of the new communist state. The new nation received immediate aid and support from the Soviet Union, and other eastern bloc nations, most notably East Germany, who constructed a military base in the newly proclaimed communist state. The banned revolutionary socialist inclined NDF in North Yemen meanwhile hosted a mass exodus into the PDRY’s territory, to help form a ‘people’s vanguard’ against the Imperialist and Reactionary forces to the north and west.
Al-Sallal meanwhile had not faded away as a minor footnote in Middle Eastern history, as some expected and hoped. Rather he proclaimed his very own Yemen Arab Republic government in exile, in Cairo, with full support of Nasser in 1968. Nasser meanwhile was planning his own ‘revolution’ in the grand scheme of things. In 1958 the United Arab Republic between Syria and Egypt. The union had collapsed within four years, though the desire for a pan-Arabic state remained. An attempted United Arab States had been formed with the North Yemenis, but this collapsed once Egypt began backing al-Sallal’s revolt in the Mutawakkilite Kingdom. In 1969 the Libyan monarchy was deposed by a generally bloodless military coup led by army officer, Muammar Gaddafi. This set into motion a chain of events that would lead to the creation of an Arab superpower and ‘mega state’ that could finally claim to be a pan-Arabic state. Nasser’s near death and recovery from a heart attack, saw him converted to the cause of a political federation instead of a unified state. In early 1971 a series of referenda were held in various Arab nations: Egypt, Syria, Libya, Iraq, and Sudan, to deem whether the people consented to the formation of a ‘Federation of Arab States.’ The results were a forgone conclusion, with the margins easily exceeding 96% in favour in all nations. Later, on the 1st of January 1972 the Federation was established. The new federation, with a Federal capital in Cairo occupied 2,274,644 sq miles, and had an estimated population of 72.5 million people. Power was de jure held between the federal constituent nations, with a General Secretary of the Federation elected by the newly formed, 100 member, Federal National Assembly; that individual being the intellectual father of the Ba’athist movement, Michel Aflaq (a Greek Orthodox Christian, who had been advocated by the Iraqi, Syrian and Libyan delegations; despite nominally having less than adequate relations with the Syrian branch who had ousted him in 1965.) In reality power was firmly in the hands of the post-Federation leaders, in particular Nasser. The FAR, with their PLO allies propped by al-Sallal’s ‘government in exile’ and aided him in his landing in Balhaf, with little to no fanfare. This saw four different Yemeni entities laying claim to the territory at the south of the peninsular.
The advent of the FAR led to nervousness in various other capital cities in the Arab world, and throughout the globe as a whole. The Saudis began to up their levels of support for the Mutawakkilite Kingdom in the north, while the communist bloc began to increase shipping and arms to the east of the nation. To the east in Tehran, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, eager to prevent the delicate balance of power in the region from being tipped towards the Iranian’s rivals, the Saudis, nor to the Nasserite par-Arabic FAR; Pahlavi resolved to give support (as did the Kingdom of Afghanistan) to al Asnag’s beleaguered regime. Al Asnag, despite this welcome support from the north east, was still in dire need of assistance, primarily from London.
At the cabinet table opinion was generally divided on the question of intervention in the former colony. President of the Board of Trade, the Gaitskellite Anthony’ Tony’ Wedgwood Benn, argued that intervention on the behalf of the “
tyrant” al Asnag, this was an opinion that was only shared by a few others in the cabinet, most of them were unlikely to raise their concerns against intervention. The Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary, Anthony Crosland, were generally neutral on the issue, but were said to be (albeit from the memoirs of then Home Secretary Bob Mellish) ‘silent supporters of intervening.’ The former Foreign Secretary and then Chancellor, Richard Crossman and the then Home Secretary, Bob Mellish were both supportive of intervention in al Asnag’s favour. Mellish favoured it, as it enabled the ‘flexing of British muscle,’ while Crossman, a committed Zionist, believed that it was vital to retain one of the few pro-Israeli (or rather not opposed to Israel) states in the region (the other notable state being the Shah’s Iran.) After lengthy cabinet discussions it was decided that the government would recognise al Asnag’s calls for assistance. Several days later the proposed ‘peacekeeping force’ was announced at the dispatch box by Defence Secretary Denis Healey. The move was generally supported by the Shadow Defence Secretary, Julian Amery, while it was ridiculed by former Tory Defence Spokesman Enoch Powell, the architect of the so called ‘Powell Doctrine’ on foreign policy.
British intervention in the region began in Spring 1972 with troop numbers initially at 3,000 troops, under the command of Air Marshall Sir Michael Beetham; thought the most high profile was Lt. Col. Colin ‘Mad Mitch’ Campbell Mitchell, who was known for his role in the prior conflict in the Aden region, fighting the ‘Battle of the Aden Crater’ which was hailed in the press as the ‘Last Battle of the British Empire.’ Mitchell gave what was described as a ‘rousing eve of battle speech.’ The widely publicised speech, noted down in shorthand by Evening Standard journalist Max Hastings, began: “
We go to South Arabia to liberate not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their country. We are entering the Aden to free a people and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their own. Show respect for them.” The speech, coupled with his reputation as ‘Mad Mitch’ inspired the creation of the hit BBC comedy series ‘NAAFI,’ which debuted later that year.
The series, created by Jimmy Perry and co-written with David Croft followed a team of British soldiers in the conflict, who usually got involved in frivolous and humorous goings on at their bases NAAFI. The series’ theme tune ‘Mad Mitch’s March’ was performed the popular music hall and vaudeville entertainer Bud Flanagan; it was put to the series’ intro which usually included pictures of the members of the cast making strange faces with a variety of objects ranging from a cup of tea, to a union jack, a woman’s legs, news headlines, a cartoon version of ‘Mad Mitch’ and a red cross tent, then a distorted picture of Peter Sellers would appear with an upside down picture of a cup of tea in his hand, before pouring it over a stereotypical NLF soldier, before opening his mouth to the camera, which would reveal the show’s logo.
The show had a wide ranging ensemble cast, staring a variety of iconic roles. Peter Sellers starred as the flatulent and cowardly Naafi Manager Denis Bloodnok (a direct reference to ‘The Goon Show’); Leonard Rossiter played the pompous and unerringly patriotic Captain A. Mainwaring who would usually get into meaningless fights with Bloodnok. John Le Mesurier played the quiet and diffident number two to Rossiter’s character - Sergeant D. Wilson. Clive Dunn starred as the popular (with audiences) Major Geoffrey Jones, a veteran of the Second World War and the Korean Conflict who was portrayed as being an eccentric, somewhat senile, yet lovable nonetheless elderly commander who would drop into the NAAFI to take advantage of the “the lovely think brown lukewarm NAAFI tea” and “to get away from the missus” (played by Janet Davies.) John Cleese and Michael Palin, known from their time on ‘The Frost Report’ and later on their Radio Four comedy anthology show ‘A Horse, a Spoon and a Bucket’ (along with Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Terry Gilliam; which ran until 1983); the two would star as Privates J. Vessey-Fitzgerland and C. Sinclair-Davies, two stereotypical dim-witted public school students who didn’t know the first thing about war. The series also starred Arnold Ridley as an elderly, yet brave Doctor Godfrey; Bill Pertwee as Captain Hodges, Mainwaring’s main rival who were usually at loggerheads (he would often ‘suck up’ to Jones, who would mistake him for making advances on him); Arnold Ridley would star as the Chief of Staff to Jones, ‘Frazer,’ usually portrayed as an ‘angry Scot.’
The show would quickly become a success, despite some concern from some in the BBC and in Downing Street that a ‘situational black comedy’ concerning ‘the emergency,’ could lead to a ‘lessening in war morale;’ nonetheless the series was given a green light by BBC Head of Comedy Michael Mills and Paul Fox, the controller of BBC 1 (with some alterations and cuts on the more controversial social commentary laid back or even removed.)
By early June 1972 Saudi forces had begun to enter South Arabian territory in the east of the nation, primarily to attack the communist linked forces (who had been engaging in rustling and robbery in border settlements on the Saudi side of the border.) The move was brought before the UNSC, and was voted on, on the 15th June, 1972. Despite Soviet protests, the only nation to vote against the resolution was Somalia; the USSR, FAR and India all abstained on the vote, while all other nations voted in favour of the resolution.
By the time of the airing of ‘NAAFI’ British troops numbers began to head closer to their all time high of 30,000 solders; the largest force of all, far outnumbering the maximum numbers of Israeli (who had intervened not long after the United Kingdom in 1972; with 5,000 troops maximum), South Arabian forces (20,000 men), PDRY/NLF forces (10,000 men), FAR forces (15,000 men) and YAR forces (7,500 men.) This numerical majority did not necessarily translate into easy militaristic victories, with the rebel forces, the PDRY/NLF forces in paricular, employing highly effective ‘Vietcong’ guerrilla tactics against the British and South Arabians; by blending into the local population, attacking, and then blending in once again with little chance of being captured. This left British forces in particular with the impossible choice of either trying to catch the individuals involved or simply round up all men in the vicinity and search them. This tactic earned the British and their allies the ire of many locals.
By the end of the year comparisons were beginning to be drawn with the US’ longterm conflict in Vietnam - ‘Britain’s Vietnam’ asked on columnist in ‘The Guardian.’ Whatever the case, British involvement was continuing to be ‘dialed up to eleven’ by the end of the year, despite more and more coffins coming home draped in the Union Jack, putting a definite damper on the patriotic mood at ‘reclaiming part of the empire.’ Most British people were however still focussed on rising fuel prices after the FAR dominated OPEC opted to raise fuel prices, harming many western consumers. Despite the Callaghan Government’s best efforts, people were beginning to feel that perhaps the country’s best days were behind it; especially with the fuel crisis beginning to bite. The omens didn’t look good for Crossman’s Autumn Statement in 1972.
The Tunney pun is quite clever.
