From the Editor

What comes to mind when you hear the term “Cold War”? Perhaps the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. The threat of nuclear war. An episode in world history that came to an end with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. That may be the general image. But what happens if we reexamine the Cold War not from the perspectives of political and diplomatic history, but from a social point of view? In fact, what is noteworthy in recent Cold War studies is that the focus of attention has shifted from the origins of the Cold War to its nature. The questions are no longer “Who started it?” or “Who was to blame?” but rather “How did it function?” and “What, really, was the Cold War?”

This book is a historical account that reexamines the Cold War from a rarely discussed perspective: that of ordinary people. Its settings include rural villages in Java, Indonesia; the jungles of northern Thailand; battlefields in Vietnam; community gatherings in East Timor; and indigenous villages in Kerala, India. Every chapter is based on oral history interviews and primary sources gathered across Asia, meticulously uncovering the voices and memories of those who lived through the 20th century in the region. In doing so, the book reveals that what we often consider part of the US-Soviet conflict—or an extension of it—was, in reality, shaped by local conditions and manifested through the imagination and practices of local people. Each chapter illuminates how people across Asia locally translated and utilized the logic of the global Cold War in their own culture wars and contests over social order. Roughly speaking, this is the extent of what the book presents. But there is one question I would like you to think about after reading it: if the “Cold War world” was continuously reproduced through these small-scale, local endeavors, then how should we understand the Cold War as a whole?

The languages used in this book go beyond well-known Asian languages such as Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese, and Indonesian, to include local languages like Malayalam (South India), Hmong (northern Thailand), and Tetum (East Timor). It incorporates a wealth of primary sources that have rarely, if ever, appeared in English-language scholarship. This is truly the result of an international collaborative effort that listened to the voices from the ground. This is a project that connects history, society, and memory, and is a recommended reading for both younger generations who are unfamiliar with the Cold War and those who experienced it. And this is a timely attempt at contemporary history that bridges the past and the present. If this book piques your interest, you may also want to visit our online archive of oral history collections “Reconceptualizing the Cold War: On-the-ground Experiences in Asia.” (Masuda Hajimu)

Contents

List of Illustrations　ix
Foreword by Odd Arne Westad　xi
Acknowledgments　xv

Introduction

Reconceptualizing the Cold War: On-the-Ground Experiences in Asia　1
Masuda Hajimu  

Part I    Social Warfare 

1 Terror in East Java: The NU versus PKI Conflict before and after September 30, 1965　23
Imam Muhtarom 

2 Islam and Communism in West Java:
The Cold War and Sociocultural Polarization in Indonesia, 1945–65　44
Matthew Woolgar 

3 Assimilation of Ethnic Chinese in Cold War Thailand, 1948–57　73
Cui Feng 

4 Voices of the Voiceless: The Cold War and the Hmong in Northern Thailand, 1965–82　91
Prasit Leepreecha 

Part II    Local Imaginings and Identity Politics 

5 Reconsidering the Naxalite Movement:
Local and Social Experiences of the Cold War in Kerala, India, in the 1960s　115
Muhammed Kunhi Mahin Udma 

6 Theorizing Southeast Asia’s Cold War: Timor in 1974–75　143
Kisho Tsuchiya 

7 Anti-Vietnamese Xenophobia as the Vernacular Expression of Anticommunism in 1950s Laos:
Rethinking (Not Removing) Our Cold War Lens　174
Simon Creak    

Part III    Individual Hope, Negotiation, and Trauma 

8 Bodyguards of the US Military? The Voices of US-Educated Okinawans, 1949–72　205
Kinuko Maehara-Yamazato 

9 The Voices of Young  Vietnamese  Women Volunteers during the Vietnam War　231
Luong Thi Hong 

10 The Red Guards in Burma, 1960s–80s: An Oral History　252
Bin Yang 

11 Afterlife of Cold War Memories:
Familial Transmission of Martial Law–Era Memories in the Post–Cold War Philippines　274
Mary Grace R. Concepcion 

12 Letter to Granddad: Tracing the Life of a Leftist during the Malayan Emergency, 1948–60　299
Sim Chi Yin

Reflections 

13 The Long, Hot Cold Wars of Asia—and Latin America　307
Alan McPherson 

14 An Archipelagic Turn: Islands as Method in Understanding Cold War Asia　319
Taomo Zhou 

15 The Cold War in Asia　328
David C. Engerman

Contributors　335
Index　339