Southeast Asia

George McTurnan Kahin was the leading scholar of Southeast Asian History and politics and US foreign policy, who pioneered the study of Southeast Asia in the United States. This book provides a unique perspective on American involvement in Southeast Asia from the 1940’s to 1970’s and the actual impact of American policies on the political and socio-economic landscape of the region. It is both a biting critique of post war American policy towards Southeast Asia and an enthralling account of the author’s personal experiences in revolutionary Indonesia and Vietnam, and of the attempts to bring US policy into accord with Southeast Asian realities. Southeast Asia: A Testament covers the tragic history of post war Indonesia from its successful struggle against the Dutch to Suharto’s bloody overthrow of Sukarno in 1965. It also gives a personal account of the US involvement in Indochina, where George Kahin was an early critic of the Vietnam war and struggled to open the eyes of policy makers to the historical, political and military realities of the Vietnamese situation.
Kahin also witnessed the reluctant involvement of Cambodia in the conflict, and the 1970 coup against Prince Sihanouk which paved the way for the Communist accession to power. This book will be of interest to students of American diplomatic and foreign policy, Asian studies, and international relations. It is an engagingly written, often poignant personal account of George Kahin’s experiences in Southeast Asia, ad as such will also appeal to the general reader.

Author Biography

George Kahin was Professor Emeritus of International Politics at Cornell University. He was a leading scholar of Southeast Asian history and of US foreign policy in the postwar period.