Mr. Smith goes to Vienna: Britain's Cold War in the Caribbean 1951–1954

The relationship between decolonisation and the Cold War strategies of the imperial powers is an area of study which requires further research. Events in the Anglophone Caribbean during the early 1950s illustrate this complex relationship by revealing both the extent and limitation of British Cold War campaigning in the imperial periphery. In particular, contacts between the Jamaican communist Ferdinand Smith and the World Federation of Trade Unions in Vienna prompted the British to conuduct a vigorous anti-communist campaign in the Anglophone Caribbean. However, British counter-action was restrained by fears that non-communist nationalist politicians would exploit the Cold War for their own ends.