Arc of Containment

Wen-Qing Ngoei

Description

Arc of Containment recasts the history of American empire in Southeast and East Asia from World War II through the end of American intervention in Vietnam. Setting aside the classic story of anxiety about falling dominoes, Wen-Qing Ngoei articulates a new regional history premised on strong security and sure containment guaranteed by Anglo-American cooperation.Ngoei argues that anticommunist nationalism in Southeast Asia intersected with preexisting local antipathy toward China and the Chinese diaspora to usher the region from European-dominated colonialism to US hegemony. Central to this revisionary strategic assessment is the place of British power and the effects of direct neocolonial military might and less overt cultural influences based on decades of colonial rule, as well as the considerable influence of Southeast Asian actors upon Anglo-American imperial strategy throughout the post-war period. Arc of Containment demonstrates that American failure in Vietnam had less long-term consequences than widely believed because British pro-West nationalism had been firmly entrenched twenty-plus years earlier. In effect, Ngoei argues, the Cold War in Southeast Asia was but one violent chapter in the continuous history of western imperialism in the region in the twentieth century.

Sujets

• États-Unis
• History of Asia
• History of the Americas
• Southeast Asia
• International relations
• Cold War
• USA
• Histoire

Informations

• Publié par: Cornell University Press
• Date de parution: 15 mai 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781501716423
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 8 Mo

Extrait

Arc o Containment

A VO LU M E I N T H E S E R I E S

THE UNITED STATES IN THE WORLD edited bY Mark Philip BradleY, David C. Engerman, AmY S. Greenberg, and Paul A. Kramer A list o titles in this series is available at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

STUDIES OF THE WEATHERHEAD EAST ASIAN INSTITUTE, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY The Studies o the Weatherhead East Asian Institute o Columbia UniversitY were inaugurated in 1962 to bring to a wider public the results o significant new research on modern and contemporarY East Asia.

Arc o Containment

Britain, the United States, and Anticommunism in Southeast Asia

WenQing Ngoei

Cornell University Press Ithaca and London

Copyright © 2019 by Cornell University

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or parts thereof, must not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher. For information, address Cornell University Press, Sage House, 512 East State Street, Ithaca, New York 14850. Visit our website at cornellpress.cornell.edu.

First published 2019 by Cornell University Press

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Names: Ngoei, WenQing, 1976–author. Title: Arc of containment : Britain, the United States, and anticommu nism in Southeast Asia / WenQing Ngoei. Description: Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2019. | Series: The United States in the world | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018040259 (print) | LCCN 2018040973 (ebook) | ISBN 9781501716416 (epub/mobi) | ISBN 9781501716423 (pdf ) | ISBN 9781501716409 | ISBN 9781501716409 (cloth ; alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: United States—Foreign relations—Southeast Asia. | Southeast Asia—Foreign relations—United States. | Great Britain— Foreign relations—Southeast Asia. | Southeast Asia—Foreign relations—Great Britain. | Communism—Southeast Asia—History— 20th century. | Nationalism—Southeast Asia—History—20th century. | Postcolonialism—Southeast Asia—History—20th century. | Chinese— Southeast Asia—History—20th century. Classification: LCC DS525.9.U6 (ebook) | LCC DS525.9.U6 N36 2019 (print) | DDC 327.73059—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018040259

Cover image: A British naval helicopter ascends from its pad after returning a Gurkha patrol to their jungle base in Malaysia, 1966. Courtesy of the Imperial War Museums.

To my family

List of Abbreviations

Contents

Introduction: Recovering the Regional Dimensions of U.S. Policy toward Southeast Asia 1. Darkest Moment: The Fall of Singapore, “Chinese Penetration,” and the Domino Theory 2. Patriot Games: How British NationBuilding Colonialism Inspired the United States 3. Manifest Fantasies: BritishMalayan Counterinsurgency and Nation Building in U.S. Strategy 4. The Best Hope: Malaysia in the “Wide AntiCommunist Arc” of Southeast Asia 5. The Friendly Kings: Southeast Asia’s Transition from AngloAmerican Predominance to U.S. Hegemony Coda: The “Reverse Domino Effect”

Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

ix

1

17

45

82

114

149 177

183 187 233 247

AMDA

ANZUS ASA ASEAN ASPAC ATOM BRIAM CCP CIA FPDA GMD/KMT MAAG MCA MCP NATO NLF NSC PAP PKI PRRI RAF

Abbreviations

AngloMalayanDefenseAgreement(AngloMalaysian Defense Agreement after 1963) Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty Association of Southeast Asia Association of Southeast Asian Nations Asia Pacific Council Conduct of AntiTerrorist Operations in Malaya British Advisory Mission Chinese Communist Party Central Intelligence Agency Five Power Defense Arrangement Guomindang/Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) Military Assistance Advisory Group Malayan Chinese Association Malayan Communist Party North Atlantic Treaty Organization National Liberation Front (known also as the Viet Cong) National Security Council People’sActionParty(Singapore) Partai Komunis Indonesia (Indonesian Communist Party) Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Indonesia Royal Air Force