Connecting Histories ─ Decolonization and the Cold War in Southeast Asia, 1945-1962

Goscha (history, U. du Quebec a Montreal, Canada) and Ostermann (history and public policy, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, US) present 15 articles exploring the complex interconnections between the Cold War and decolonization in Southeast Asia. Penned by contributors from Canada, France, Malaysia, Russia, the Philippines, Singapore, the US, and the UK, papers discuss such topics as the French attempts to establish a noncommunist government in Vietnam under Bao Dai and its connections to the Cold War, the Cold War and US policy toward Indonesia (1950-1952), Dutch fears about loss of empire in Southeast Asia, British strategic analysis of conflict in Vietnam and Indonesia (1945-1950), Soviet Cold War strategy and prospects of revolution in South and Southeast Asia, the discourse of nonalignment in China's early Cold War experience, Vietnamese communists and the coming of the Cold War, Indonesia's turn towards nonalignment (1945-1955), Malaysia during the Cold War (1946-1963), Southeast Asian perceptions of the domino theory, Burma during the Cold War, and Indonesian Islam and communism during the Cold War. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)