Southeast Asia and the Cold War

While scholars have debated the origins of the Cold War in Southeast Asia #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; when it started and how it spread #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; and its key defining moments, comparatively less attention has been paid to its impact and legacy on the various countries in the region #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; and on the region itself. This volume contributes to the historiography of the Cold War in Southeast Asia by examining not only how the conflict shaped the milieu in which national and regional change unfolded but also how the context influenced the course and tenor of the Cold War in the region, and the usefulness or limitations of using the Cold War as an interpretative framework for understanding change in Southeast Asia. Taken together the chapters show that the Cold War had a varied but notable impact on the countries in Southeast Asia #xE2;#xAC;#x1C; not primarily, as was commonly presumed, on only the mainland countries belonging to what the British Foreign Office called the 'upper arc', especially Indochina, but also on those situated on its maritime 'lower arc', and showed clearly that what happened in the north affected what happened in the south.