Spanning from the first US contacts with Cambodia in the 19th century up until the late 1960s and the outbreak of war with Vietnam, this book is the first to systematically explore American relations with Cambodia. A discussion of adventurers, tourists and missionaries initially sets the scene for the analysis of official relations which began in 1950. The book traces how relations with Cambodia's king, Norodom Sihanouk, were often troubled as Sihanouk strove to keep his country out of the Cold War even when pressured by the US to join the battle against communism.

Beginning with the restoration of diplomatic relations between the US and Cambodia in 1969, this book is the first to systematically explore the controversial issues and events surrounding the relationship between the two countries in the latter half of the 20th century. It traces how the secret bombing of Cambodia, the coup which overthrew Prince Sihanouk and the American invasion of Cambodia in 1970 led to a brutal civil war. Based on extensive archival research in the United States, Australia and Cambodia, this is the most comprehensive account of the United States' troubled relationship with Cambodia.

This volume examines the United States' efforts to lure Cambodia from neutrality to alliance during the Eisenhower presidency. William J. Rust conclusively demonstrates that, as with Laos in 1958 and 1960, covert intervention in the internal political affairs of neutral Cambodia proved to be a counterproductive tactic for advancing the United States' anticommunist goals.

This book assesses British colonialism in South Asia in a transnational light, and with a focus on ‘subaltern’ groups and actors. Challenging the assumed stability of colonial rule, it analyses the ways in which the racial, class and moral order instituted by British colonial states was resisted and subverted.

This book weaves a history of the Indonesian press, and of Indonesia’s post-independence history, through the life story of Mochtar Lubis: one of Indonesia’s best-known newspaper editors, authors and cultural figures with a national, regional and international prominence he retained from the early 1950s until his death in 2004.

Written by the late Ralph Smith, a highly respected historian of Asia, this book examines the history of communist Indochina, from the foundation of the Indochinese Communist Party in 1929-30 to the end of the 1970s.

This book explores the history of pre-communist Indochina, from the fourteenth century to the 1940s. It examines the early state of Vietnam, comparing and contrasting its political and social systems, with both those of neighbouring states such as Thailand and those prevalent at the time in Europe. It identifies the forces that shaped Indochina before the arrival of European colonial powers, in particular the impact of China, which was not only a military threat and extracted payments of tribute, but was also an important commercial and cultural influence, not least through the export of Confucianism. It demonstrates clearly that the events and transformations of the late 16th and early 17th centuries are the starting point of developments which by around 1800 established the broad pattern of political and economic relations that existed before the nineteenth century 'impact of the West' began. It goes on to consider the impact of European colonialism in Indochina, focusing especially on French Indochina. It explores the ways in which the French occupiers groomed a new indigenous colonial elite to replace the existing elites who refused to co-operate with the authorities, and examines the growing opposition to French rule, including the role played by the often misunderstood religious and political movement of Caodaism. It analyses the different avenues of expression of Vietnamese nationalism, including the emergence of the Constitutionalist Party - the nearest French Indochina had to a democratic party in the Western sense. It shows how it sought to seek, through the actions of the French themselves, reforms that would lead to the modernisation of the country and more liberty for its inhabitants; and explains why it ultimately failed to achieve its objectives. Written by the late Ralph Smith, a highly respected historian of Asia, this book is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the history of Indochina.