The notion that the British conducted their post-war counter-insurgency campaigns by employing kindness, and by trying to secure the ‘hearts and minds’ of the civilians among whom the security forces were operating, has gained wide currency in the literature. Other scholars, such as David French, Ashley Jackson, Hew Strachan, Paul Dixon, Alex Marshall, Brendon Piers and Caroline Elkins, have subsequently echoed Newsinger's arguments. In the early 1990s, historian challenged the notion that the British relied on hearts and minds counterinsurgency strategies he argued that the existing literature minimized or obscured the extent to which the British used force. Ī criticism levied against the British 'hearts and minds' concept was that 'here is much talk of fighting for 'the hearts and minds' of Malayans, but only blind obedience is demanded of them'. The answer lies not in pouring more troops into the jungle but in the hearts and minds of the people.

The other seventy-five percent is getting the people of this country behind us. The shooting side of this business is only twenty-five percent of the trouble. Gerald Templer stated shortly after his arrival in Malaya that: The term was used during the Malayan Emergency by the British who employed practices to keep the Malayans' trust and reduce a tendency to side with the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA), in this case, by giving medical and food aid to the Malays and indigenous tribes. The efficacy of 'hearts and minds' as a counterinsurgency strategy has been debated.

The term has also been attributed to Gerald Templer's strategy during the Malayan Emergency. The use of the term 'hearts and minds' to reference a method of bringing a subjugated population on side, was first used by French general and colonial administrator Hubert Lyautey as part of his strategy to counter the Black Flags rebellion during the Tonkin campaign in 1895. The term 'hearts and minds' was first used by French general Hubert Lyautey.

Winning hearts and minds is a concept occasionally expressed in the resolution of war, insurgency, and other conflicts, in which one side seeks to prevail not by the use of superior force, but by making emotional or intellectual appeals to sway supporters of the other side.

Conflict strategy in which one side persuades supporters of the other to their cause A United States Army soldier greeting Iraqi children while on patrol during the occupation of Iraq in 2009

Heart and mind conflict quotes