Biographical Notes

George McTurnan Kahin (25 – 29 January 2000) – Academic

American historian and political scientist George McTurnan Kahin was born in , Maryland and grew up in Seattle.1 He received his bachelor’s degree from (1940) where he studied under China specialist John King Fairbank. At Harvard, Kahin became interested in International Relations and helped form the Harvard Foreign Relations Club.2

In 1942, Kahin joined the US army. He volunteered for a specialized training programme where he and a small group of GIs were to be trained and parachuted into Japanese-occupied Indonesia. In the end, Kahin and members of his group were sent to European theatre of war instead. Nevertheless, the experience ignited Kahin’s interest in Indonesia.3 After his discharge from the Army, Kahin pursued his Masters at where he wrote a dissertation on the Chinese in Indonesia.

Kahin continued his PhD studies at specializing in Indonesia.4 His fieldwork in Indonesia was completed between 1948 to 1949 during the country’s independence revolution against the Dutch. As such, Kahin had the rare opportunity of seeing conditions on the ground, as well as interviewing and befriending top revolutionary leaders including President .5 His PhD dissertation was published as Nationalism and revolution in Indonesia in 1952 and became an influential text in the field of Indonesian studies.6

In 1951, Kahin joined as an assistant professor in the Department of Government.7 In 1954, Kahin founded the Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, funded by the Ford Foundation, and directed the Project until 1988.8 He also became Director of Cornell’s Program from 1961 to 1970.9 He was remembered by his students as being a master teacher who cared about the welfare of his students.10 In 1992, Kahin was honoured with the dedication of the George McT. Kahin Centre for Advanced Research.11

In the 1960s, Kahin was known as one of the foremost academic critics of American policy in Vietnam. He gained a reputation as being an antiwar critic by his participation in a National Teach-in session, and a televised debate with William Bundy, the assistant secretary of state for Far Eastern Affairs, in 1965.12 He spoke against the war in colleges across the United States, supported politicians who opposed to the war and visited Vietnam several times to meet with Vietnamese politicians and officials.13

1 “George McT. Kahin”, The Ithaca Journal, 2 February 2000; Kahin, George McT., Southeast Asia: a testament, London, New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003, p. x. 2 Kahin, Southeast Asia, p. 5. 3 “George McT. Kahin”, The Ithaca Journal, 2 February 2000;, pp. 9-13. 4 Kahin, Southeast Asia, pp. 14-15. 5 Curaming, Rommel A., “The making of a ‘classic’ in South East Asian studies: Another look at Kahin, Agoncillo and the revolutions”, South East Asian Research, Vol. 20, No. 4 (December 2012), p. 597; Kahin, Southeast Asia, pp. 78-79. 6 Curaming, “The making of a ‘classic’ in South East Asian studies”, p.598. 7 Kahin, Southeast Asia, p. 136. 8 Kahin, George McT., “Cornell’s modern Indonesia project”, Indonesia, No. 48 (Oct 1989), p. 1; Kahin, Southeast Asia, pp. 140-142. 9 Kahin, Southeast Asia, p. 182; Werner, Jayne S., “George McT. Kahin: a tribute”, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, Vol. 32, No. 4 (2000), p. 56. 10 O’Connor, Stanley J. et al, “George McTurnan Kahin, 1918-2000”, Indonesia, No. 69 (April 2000), p. 6. 11 Werner, “George McT. Kahin: a tribute”, p. 57. 12 Kahin, Southeast Asia, pp. 185-186; Werner, “George McT. Kahin: a tribute”, pp. 55-56. 13 O’Connor, Stanley J. et al, “George McTurnan Kahin, 1918-2000”, Indonesia, No. 69 (April 2000), p. 8; Kahin, Southeast Asia, p. 212.

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Kahin has been credited for publishing the first scholarly textbooks on Southeast Asia in the United States.14 His major published works include The government and politics of Southeast Asia (1959), The United States and Vietnam (with John Lewis, 1967) and Intervention (1986).15

On 29 January 2000, Kahin passed away. He was survived by his wife, Audrey Richey, and his children, Brian and Sharon.16

14 Werner, “George McT. Kahin: a tribute”, p. 56. 15 O’Connor, “George McTurnan Kahin, 1918-2000”, p. 6. 16 “George McT. Kahin, 82 dies”, New York Times (Online), 2 February 2000; “Professor George Kahin, 82; an expert on Southeast Asia”, The Associated Press, 2 February 2000.

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