2.  Due to massive economic exploitation and racist treatment, Southeast Asians resented European Colonialism  Defending economic interests and religious beliefs  Thailand Stands Alone  Burma’s Saya San and the peasant uprising  Vietnam’s Can Vuong (“Save the King”)  Transition to independence seeking  Nationalism gained momentum with Western-educated Southeast Asians  Burmese students at the University of Rangoon

3.  Efforts to revoke colonialism in SE Asia are influenced by Communism  Marxist doctrine – social revolution  Attention was paid to Communism after the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia because it marked the overthrow of outdated systems, not just industrial systems  Comintern (Communist International)  Strategy to spread revolution – Asian nationals were recruited, trained, and sent home to form Marxist parties  The effect was Communist parties in nearly all SE Asian colonies  Most worked with nationalist parties – Vietnam was a different story…

4.  The Vietnamese Communist party was founded by Ho Chi Minh  He was trained through Comintern in Moscow  The Vietminh seized control of Northern Vietnam in 1945  The French had refused to grant independence to Indochina  Southern Vietnam remains in French control and war breaks out  French Defeat – two Vietnams created  Defeat at Dien Bien Phu, France signs Geneva Peace Accords  Vietnam is split: Communist North and non-Communist South  Domino Theory  The U.S. opposes communism spreading; support Ngo Dinh Diem  U.S. troops fight from 1965-1973 against the Viet Cong

5. 1946 – Philippines (U.S.) 1948 – Burma (Great Britain) 1949 – Indonesia (Netherlands) 1953 – Cambodia (France) 1954 – Laos (France) 1954 – Vietnam (France) 1963 – Malaysia (Great Britain) 1964 – Singapore (Great Britain)

6.  Admiration for Western practices  Democratic, capitalist states  Failures lead to military rule and one-party regimes  Indonesia:  Sukarno’s “guided democracy”  General Suharto’s military government  Burma (Myanmar):  Repressive military government  Vietnam:  Reunified under Communist rule  Cambodia:  Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge  Genocide  The Philippines:  Marcos regime

7.  ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations)  Founded in 1967  Members: Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thailand, Brunei (1984), Laos (1997), Burma (1997), and Cambodia (1999)  ASEAN works with Dialogue Partners like the U.S., India, and the EU  3 Pillars:  Political-Security  Economic  Socio-Cultural

8. 1997 – Asian Financial Crisis http://www.fas.org/man/crs/crs-asia2.htm Economic Recovery & Current Status: “Five ASEAN economies -- Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam -- along with China and India will outpace the rest of the world over the next two years, the International Monetary Fund said in an April report. In 2013, the Asean-5 will grow 6.2 percent, compared with 2.4 percent in the U.S., 0.9 percent in the euro area and 1.7 percent in Japan, it said.” -Bloomberg Businessweek, July 17, 2012