Dynamics of the Cold War in Asia

"Cold War history has been dominated for too long by those who thought they knew who were directing the Cold War around the world. Recent studies have begun to show how misleading that was. The authors in this volume have gone further to examine the active roles that Asian leaders played. They convincingly prove that the leaders were guided not only by national or developmental concerns but were also moved by cultural ideals that reflected both their own traditions and their response to universalist and internationalist aspirations. The important contributions made here challenge all historians to think afresh about the place of smaller powers in global affairs." - Wang Gungwu, University Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, National University of Singapore

"This volume makes a major contribution to the field by re-centering the origins and development of the Cold War in Asia, and demonstrating how crucial Asia was to the conflict. It uses rich, empirical cases, many of them never before presented in English, to explore the way in which the Cold War reshaped East and Southeast Asia - and how those developments in turn shaped the global Cold War. This is essential reading for all serious scholars of the postwar era." - Rana Mitter, author of A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World

"Tuong Vu and Wasana Wongsurawat's volume stands out in the existing historiography in international relations in that it patently shifts the emphasis from the American side of the Cold War to the Asian ones. . . [It] makes it clear that culture was as important a tool for Asian states as it was for the superpowers trying to influence them. . . This book and the debate it stirs will surely advance the study of the cultural dimensions of the Cold War in Asia." - H-Diplo, Christopher E. Goscha, Université du Québec à Montréal

"The essays. . . represent some of the most exciting work being done in international Cold War history." - H-Diplo, Jessica M. Chapman, Williams College