Although based almost entirely on secondary sources, this book offers something that no book heretofore has provided: a survey of the Cold War from the perspective of the countries in Southeast Asia. Ang Cheng Guan tends to become entangled in seemingly disparate details about Communist movements and government policies in the different Southeast Asian countries. His mostly implicit theme is expressed most clearly in words attributed to Lee Kuan Yew about U.S. intervention in Vietnam: “the long [U.S.] effort gave the rest of Asia the time needed to develop the strength to resist communist takeovers” (p. 192). The formation and development of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) is front and center in the book, indicating the importance of ASEAN and its role in creating the idea and expanding the sphere of regional security.
The book views the Cold War in Southeast Asia as a phase in a...