Douglas Gracey

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General Sir Douglas David Gracey, KCB, KCIE, CBE, MC (1894 - 1964) was a British officer in both the First and Second World Wars and the second Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan, holding this office from 11 February 1948 to 16 January 1951.

Gracey saw World War I service in France. He commanded 20th Indian Division, part of the Fourteenth Army, during the Burma Campaign in WWII.

General Sir Douglas Gracey did not send troops to the Kashmir front and refused to obey the order given by Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Governor-General of Pakistan. Gracey argued that Jinnah as Governor-General represented the British crown of which he himself was an appointee. Similarly, the early heads of Pakistan’s air and naval forces were Englishmen.

1 Commander in Chief Allied Land Forces French Indo-China (1945-1946)
2 See also
3 References
4 External links

[edit] Commander in Chief Allied Land Forces French Indo-China (1945-1946)

In September 1945, Gracey led 20,000 troops of the 20th Indian division to occupy Saigon. During the Potsdam Conference in July 1945, the Allied had agreed on having Britain to take control of South Vietnam from the Japanese occupiers. Meanwhile, Ho Chi Minh, the leader of Viet Minh, had proclaimed Vietnamese independence from French rule, and major pro-independence and anti-French demonstrations were held in Saigon. Fearing a communist takeover of Vietnam, Gracey decided to rearm French citizens who had remained in Saigon and allow them to seize control of public buildings from VietMinh. As fighting spread throughout the city in October 1945, Gracey issued guns to surrendered Japanese troops and used them to help restore order in the city. This controversial decision furthered Ho's cause of liberating Vietnam from foreigners' rule and precipitated the First Indochina War.^[1]