Journals

Soon after the ex-colonies of European and Japanese imperial powers in Asia began to achieve independence after the end of the Second World War in 1945, Asia was plunged into the Cold War. Many of the new nations were transformed into frontline states as proxies of Western liberal democracy- the so-called ‘free world’ led by the US-against the encroachment of an expanding communism, which received covert support from Communist China and the Soviet Union. The Cold War was in fact a ‘very hot war’ in Asia. Every newly independent postcolonial nation in Southeast Asia, with the exception of Singapore, fought a civil/insurgency war with its respective home grown communist party. In each of these instances, the US played either a covert or open role in supporting anti-communist fractions.

In China, the Chinese Communist Party (PRC) ousted the republican Kuomingtang (KMT), which decamped to the island of Taiwan in 1949. In the Korean peninsula, the early 1950s’ Korean War between American-led allied forces and communist forces from Russia and the PRC ended with an annistice that divided the nation into a communist north and a capitalist south; no peace treaty has been signed to formally end this conflict. Even today, the north-south Korea division and relations between the PRC and Taiwan across the Taiwan Strait remain tense, reminding all that the Cold War is not yet truly over in Asia. In Vietnam, a protracted civil war between a communist north and a capitalist south followed immediately from the defeat of the French colonial regime. The north prevailed,enabling the unification of the country under the Vietnamese Communist Party in 1973. In all these violent conflicts, America, the superpower, became directly and indirectly engaged, providing financial, intelligence and military support to the capitalist side of the conflict. The struggles of the non-communist Southeast Asian nations-Thailand, Indonesia,Malaysia and Singapore-to establish political and economic sovereignty, economic developmentand national identity for their respective peoples opened these nations up to the financial aid and political and security influences of the US. America, the postwar leader of thenon-communist world, progressively became a pervasive and influential force, replacing the defeated colonial European powers in the region.

From ARI-organised international conference “American Pop Culture in Asia”, 19-20 February 2009.