Outposts of Empire: Korea, Vietnam and the Origins of the Cold War in Asia, 1949-1954 - Hardcover

After World War II the United States, determined to prevent an extension of the influence of the Soviet Union and Communist China, took the lead in organizing the defence of Western interests in Asia. Exploring the foreign-policy objectives of the USA, Canada and the United Kingdom, this book examines the role played by economic and military aid in their attempts to establish pro-Western, anti-communist governments on the periphery of communist East Asia. The author draws on a wide range of recently classified documents to outline the regional and international context of American diplomatic history in Korea and Vietnam, and analyzes the relationship between containment, the bipolar international system, and European and American concepts of empire at the beginning of decolonization. He argues that, although policy-makers in Canada and the UK adopted a more defensive containment policy towards Communist China than did the United States, they generally supported American attempts to promote pro-Western elites in Korea and Vietnam.