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On 19 March 1969 a small force of British policemen and paratroopers occupied the tiny Caribbean island of Anguilla. The ostensible purpose of this invasion was to secure the island’s allegiance to the larger island of St Kitts to which it had been joined two years earlier as part of a new Associated State. The Associated States remained within the ambit of the residual British empire and the particular circumstances of the invasion mark it as a distinctive episode in the history of decolonization which attracted much satirical comment at the time. An examination of the policies pursued by the Wilson government illustrates some significant ways in which it was representative of British attitudes at the end of empire. There was a persistent concern that once imperial power had withdrawn, local populations would turn to nationalist demagogues and Ronald Webster of Anguilla, who led the secessionist campaign against the Kittitian connection, was viewed in this light. Doubts about the quality of local leadership were exacerbated by fears about the pernicious effect of the new foreign influences which would replace the British. In the case of Anguilla, this led to exaggerated estimates of the likelihood of the island falling under the influence of the American mafia. Following the reoccupation of the island, the Wilson government reconsidered the tenets which had governed policy and concluded that the attempt to force the Anguillans back under Kittitian control was impractical. Anguilla’s connection to St Kitts was eventually severed in 1980 and the island became a British Dependent Territory. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]