Nationalist China in the Postcolonial Philippines: Diasporic Anticommunism, Shared Sovereignty, and Ideological Chineseness, 1945-1970S

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Nationalist China in the Postcolonial Philippines: Diasporic Anticommunism, Shared Sovereignty, and Ideological Chineseness, 1945-1970S Nationalist China in the Postcolonial Philippines: Diasporic Anticommunism, Shared Sovereignty, and Ideological Chineseness, 1945-1970s Chien Wen Kung Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2018 © 2018 Chien Wen Kung All rights reserved ABSTRACT Nationalist China in the Postcolonial Philippines: Diasporic Anticommunism, Shared Sovereignty, and Ideological Chineseness, 1945-1970s Chien Wen Kung This dissertation explains how the Republic of China (ROC), overseas Chinese (huaqiao), and the Philippines, sometimes but not always working with each other, produced and opposed the threat of Chinese communism from the end of World War II to the mid-1970s. It is not a history of US- led anticommunist efforts with respect to the Chinese diaspora, but rather an intra-Asian social and cultural history of anticommunism and nation-building that liberates two close US allies from US- centric historiographies and juxtaposes them with each other and the huaqiao community that they claimed. Three principal arguments flow from this focus on intra-Asian anticommunism. First, I challenge narrowly territorialized understandings of Chinese nationalism by arguing that Taiwan engaged in diasporic nation-building in the Philippines. Whether by helping the Philippine military identify Chinese communists or by mobilizing Philippine huaqiao in support of Taiwan, the ROC carved out a semi-sovereign sphere of influence for itself within a foreign country. It did so through institutions such as schools, the Kuomintang (KMT), and the Philippine-Chinese Anti-Communist League, which functioned transnationally and locally to embed the ROC into Chinese society and connect huaqiao to Taiwan. Through these groups, the ROC shaped the experiences of a national community beyond its territorial boundaries and represented itself as the legitimate “China” in the world. Second, drawing upon political theory, I argue that the anticommunist relationship between the ROC, the Philippines, and the Philippine Chinese constituted a form of what I call shared, non- territorial sovereignty. Nationalist China did not secure influence over Chinese in the Philippines by exerting military or economic pressure, as a neocolonial regime might. Vast disparities in power did not obtain between Manila and Taipei, as they did between them and Washington. Rather, for reasons of law, culture, linguistic incapacity, and ideology, the Philippines selectively outsourced the management of its Chinese residents to the ROC. In turn, both depended on the Chinese being able to govern themselves with state support, coercive and otherwise. The Philippine Chinese, as in colonial times, were thus semi-autonomous actors who participated in the construction of shared sovereignty after World War II by forging ties with states to advance their anticommunist agenda. This three-way relationship provides a framework for thinking about postcolonial sovereignty in East Asia that focuses on relations of relative equality between states and the relative autonomy of the Chinese as a minority population, rather than between dominant and dominated or in terms of territory. Nationalist China and the Philippines’ nation-building projects had profound consequences for the Philippine Chinese. While these peoples were in many respects acted upon by the ROC and Philippine states through legal and coercive means, they by no means lacked agency. Rather, they performed their agency as consensual participants in making anticommunism. In focusing on them, the dissertation shifts from international and transnational history to social and cultural history and the history of civic life. Existing scholarship, whether in the social sciences or Sinophone Studies, largely depicts the postcolonial hua subject as a non-ideological businessman or cultural producer. I argue, by contrast, that the overseas Chinese could be eminently ideological and politically active. From informing on suspected Chinese communists to the ROC and Philippine states to proclaiming their loyalties to the ROC and Chiang Kai-shek, anticommunist social practices enabled Philippine huaqiao to come to terms with being legally disadvantaged and ideologically suspect minorities in their country of residence. Unlike racial and cultural Chineseness, which they could or would not give up, they could and did choose to behave ideologically; and in doing so, they legitimized their community to the Philippine state and Filipino society. Table of Contents Acknowledgements ii Introduction 1 Chapter 1 The Making of Shared Sovereignty: Chinese Intracommunal Conflict and 39 the Rise of the KMT in the Early Postwar Philippines Chapter 2 In the Name of Anticommunism: Chinese Practices of Ideological 80 Accommodation in the Early Cold War Philippines Chapter 3 Making Communists: Mass Arrests, Disinformation, and the Politics of 118 Anticommunism in the Philippines and Taiwan, 1952-1961 Chapter 4 Networking Ideology: Anticommunism and the Restructuring of 164 Philippine-Chinese Society in the 1950s Chapter 5 Experiencing the Nation-State: Philippine-Chinese Visits to Taiwan and 212 the Politics of Transnationalism, 1958-1971 Chapter 6 A Government Within a Government: Nationalist China, the Philippine 255 Military, and the Yuyitungs, 1950-1970 Chapter 7 A Humane Sovereignty: Nationalist China’s Public Relations Campaign in 299 Response to the Yuyitung Affair, 1970-1972 Conclusion 340 Bibliography 350 i Acknowledgements I could not have completed graduate school and this dissertation without the support of so many people, both at Columbia and elsewhere. Adam McKeown was instrumental in bringing me to Columbia and shepherding me through my first year in the Ph.D. program at a time when I had a vague notion about studying transnational anticommunism, but few ideas on how to do so. That I have anchored the project in Chinese diasporic history owes much to his scholarship and to our final conversation in the fall of 2013. Rest in peace, Adam; you are missed. Other Columbia faculty stepped into the breach. Charles Armstrong has encouraged me to think beyond conventional Cold War history and embrace an intra-Asian approach to the broader East Asian region after 1945. Eugenia Lean’s colloquium on modern China in the spring of 2013 transformed how I think about the (Chinese) past. Despite her many other commitments (and Ph.D. students), she found the time to provide detailed and critical feedback on my work and even serve as my joint advisor. If I am no longer doing “old-fashioned diplomatic history” (I hope I am not!) and have come to identify – partially – as a modern Chinese historian, it is because of her. I also want to thank Hang Nguyen for enthusiastically coming on board the committee at a late stage and Matt Connelly and Betsy Blackmar for their suggestions during the initial stages of the project. Research and writing are solitary pursuits; life at Columbia has been anything but. I have been privileged to be surrounded by brilliant and wonderful friends and colleagues in History and East Asian Languages and Cultures who have kept me sane, happy, and intellectually stimulated, including but not limited to: John Chen, Ulug Kuzuoglu, Chris Chang, Clay Eaton, James Gerien- Chen, Colin Jones, Jack Neubauer, John Thompson, Kyoungjin Bae, Victor Petrov, Harun Buljina, Sean O’Neill, Eunsung Cho, Kumhee Cho, Chloe Estep, Allison Bernard, Sayantani Mukherjee, Nataly Shahaf, Ian Shin, Tyler Walker, Dongxin Zou, Manuel Bautista, Adrien Zakar, Yijun Wang, ii Nolan Bensen, Josh Schlachet, Hannah Elmer, and the other members of the entering History Ph.D. cohort of 2011. I wish that I could thank each of you individually, but this list will have to suffice for now. Beyond Columbia, Mike Montesano has been an intellectual mentor since we met over a decade ago in Singapore and I declared my intention then to pursue a Ph.D. in History. Over email, coffee, and meals, he familiarized me with the professional study of Southeast Asia, supported my research since before this project was conceived, and opened more doors for me than I can count. Very early on in my research, Mike introduced me to Carol Hau. She knows my dissertation better than anyone else does as one of the few specialists in the world on the Chinese in the Philippines, and having read and provided perceptive and timely feedback on multiple drafts of all my chapters. I am still astounded at how quickly she returned these drafts to me with comments. In mentioning her, I must also thank Michael Szonyi for agreeing to serve as the second external member of the committee despite his many administrative responsibilities and the two of us having met for only a few minutes at the Association for Asian Studies meeting in 2017. Others from far and wide have commented on different aspects of the dissertation over the last seven years, including Wen-Qing Ngoei, Clark Alejandrino, James Lin, Leow Wei Yi, Masuda Hajimu, Richard Chu, Taomo Zhou, Donald Nonini, Dominic Yang, Julia Strauss, Chu Hong-yuan, Evan Dawley, Kornel Chang, Eric Tagliacozzo, Jojo Abinales, Bill Rowe, Alvin Camba, Yunchen Tian, Henry Chan, Wang Gungwu, Teresita Ang-See, Go Bon Juan, and Benito Lim. Research funding was provided by the History Department at Columbia, Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Sasakawa Young Leaders’ Fellowship Fund, Association for Asian Studies’ China and Inner Asia Council, and Confucius China Studies Program. Writeup fellowships from
Recommended publications
  • Tourism Enterprise Zone Presentation
    TIEZA Background Tourism Enterprise Zone (TEZ) Fiscal and Non-Fiscal Incentives Incentives for Enterprises Outside TEZs Designated Private TEZs Flagship TEZs Lead agency in tourism infrastructure which was created by virtue of the Tourism Act of 2009 Infrastructure and Investment Arm of the DOT Mandate Jurisdiction • To develop, manage and supervise tourism • Shall have sole and exclusive jurisdiction in the infrastructure projects nationwide establishment and designation of TEZs as well as • To designate, regulate, and supervise TEZs registration of Tourism Enterprises (RTEs) • To grant and administer fiscal and non-fiscal • Shall issue all permits and licenses to TEZs incentives Operators and RTEs • Shall administer and grant incentives Tourism Enterprise Zone (TEZ) Is one contiguous territory Has historical and cultural significance, environmental beauty, or existing or potential integrated leisure facilities Has, or it may have, strategic access through transportation infrastructure, and connection with utilities infrastructure systems Must be sufficient in size (5 hectares for Private and 50 hectares for Flagship TEZ) *** minimum investment Is in a strategic location requirement of $ 5M Classification of TEZs Cultural Heritage Tourism Zone Health and Wellness Tourism Zone Ecotourism Zone General Leisure Tourism Zone Mixed Use Tourism Zone Who may apply for designation as TEZs? Private entity created under Corporation Code Local Government Unit or any instrumentality of government in pursuit of its mandate Joint Venture between
    [Show full text]
  • 6 X 10.Long.P65
    Cambridge University Press 978-0-521-84256-3 - China’s Republic Diana Lary Index More information Index of names Anderson, J. G., 92 as leader, 104–5, 125 Ang Lee, see Li Ang Memorial Hall, 195 and Northern Expedition, 56 n. 5, 79 Ba Jin, 55 puritanism, 195 Backhouse, Edmund, 56 n. 5 remains, 76 Bada Shanren, 93 in Resistance War, 114, 117, 125, 142–3 Bai Chongxi, 100, 189, 198 resumes presidency, 189 Bai Xianyong (Pai Hsien-yung), 198 as revolutionary leader, 76 Black, Davidson, 92 as soldier, 100 Bland, J. O. P., 16, 31 in Taipei, 190 Borodin, Michael, 75 Chiang Wei-kuo, 201 n. 13 Bose, Subbhas Chandra, 155 n. 4 Churchill, Winston, 127 Buck, Pearl, 19, 85, 107 Cixi (Empress Dowager), 17, 29 death, 40 Cai Tingkai, 69, 99, 100, 176 flight from Peking, 27 Cantlie, James, 21 and reforms, 22–3 Cao Cao, 59 tomb, 47, 53 Capa, Robert, 119 Confucius, 53 Cartier-Bresson, Henri, 161 Chang, Jun (Zhang Rong), 168 Dai Li, 125 Chen Duxiu, 75 Dai Jitao, 201 n. 13 Ch’en, Eugene, 79 De Wang, 75, 99, 129, 130, 155 Chen Jian, 147 n. 12 Deng Xiaoping, 59, 181, 212 Chen Jiongming, 57 Ding Wenjiang, 64, 92 Chen Jitang, 60, 102, 103 Dong Jianhua (C. H. Tung), 175 Chen Kaige, 198 Du Fu, 59 Chen Lifu, 174, 182 Chen Piqun, 155 Fei Xiaotong, 176 Ch’en Shui-pien (Shuibian), 12, 181, 201, Feng Youlan, 176 202 n. 14, 205, 216 Feng Yuxiang, 60, 100 Chen Yi, 158 Fu Zuoyi, 170, 176 Chen Yi (Marshal), 158 Chennault, Claire, 144 Gong Li, 94 Cheung, Leslie, 94 Goto Shimpei, 186 Cheung, Maggie, 89 Gu Weijun (Wellington Koo), 55 Chiang Ching-kuo, 85, 201 n.
    [Show full text]
  • Confession, Redemption, and Death: Liu Xiaobo and the Protest Movement of 1989
    Confession, Redemption, and Death: Liu Xiaobo and the Protest Movement of 1989 Geremie Barmé1 There should be room for my extremism; I certainly don’t demand of others that they be like me... I’m pessimistic about mankind in general, but my pessimism does not allow for escape. Even though I might be faced with nothing but a series of tragedies, I will still struggle, still show my opposition. This is why I like Nietzsche and dislike Schopenhauer. Liu Xiaobo, November 19882 I FROM 1988 to early 1989, it was a common sentiment in Beijing that China was in crisis. Economic reform was faltering due to the lack of a coherent program of change or a unified approach to reforms among Chinese leaders and ambitious plans to free prices resulted in widespread panic over inflation; the question of political succession to Deng Xiaoping had taken alarming precedence once more as it became clear that Zhao Ziyang was under attack; nepotism was rife within the Party and corporate economy; egregious corruption and inflation added to dissatisfaction with educational policies and the feeling of hopelessness among intellectuals and university students who had profited little from the reforms; and the general state of cultural malaise and social ills combined to create a sense of impending doom. On top of this, the government seemed unwilling or incapable of attempting to find any new solutions to these problems. It enlisted once more the aid of propaganda, empty slogans, and rhetoric to stave off the mounting crisis. University students in Beijing appeared to be particularly heavy casualties of the general malaise.
    [Show full text]
  • In a Fortnight Washington D.C
    Volume XV • Issue 24 • December 21, 2015 In This Issue: Waking Up? China Moves on Environmental Issues at 1 Paris Summit By Peter Wood 3 China’s Draft Cybersecurity Law By Zunyou Zhou 6 The Latest Indication of the PLA’s Network Chinese President Xi Jinping speaks at Warfare Strategy? the UN Climate Change Conference in By Elsa B. Kania Paris Source (Source: QQ) New Tensions, Old Problems on the Sino-Indian Border 11 By Ivan Lidarev China Brief is a bi-weekly journal of Mapping China’s Small Arms Trade: China’s Illicit information and analysis covering Domestic Gun Trade 15 Greater China in Eurasia. By Zi Yang China Brief is a publication of The Jamestown Foundation, a private non-profit organization based in In a Fortnight Washington D.C. and is edited by Waking Up? China Moves on Peter Wood. The opinions expressed in China Environmental Issues at Paris Brief are solely those of the authors, Summit and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Jamestown Foundation. By Peter Wood For comments and questions about China Brief, please contact us at n 2009, the image of Chinese ministers asleep at their desks at I [email protected] the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen was taken as a metaphor for the world’s torpid movement on environmental issues. With the results of the recent Paris The Jamestown Foundation Conference on Climate Change showing progress and a number of 1111 16th St. NW, Suite 320 Washington, DC 20036 reforms by China’s top leadership, it is becoming clear that, in Tel: 202.483.8888 terms of both foreign and domestic policy, China is “waking up” Fax: 202.483.8337 to face its environmental problems.
    [Show full text]
  • Glossary Glossary
    Glossary Glossary Albedo A measure of an object’s reflectivity. A pure white reflecting surface has an albedo of 1.0 (100%). A pitch-black, nonreflecting surface has an albedo of 0.0. The Moon is a fairly dark object with a combined albedo of 0.07 (reflecting 7% of the sunlight that falls upon it). The albedo range of the lunar maria is between 0.05 and 0.08. The brighter highlands have an albedo range from 0.09 to 0.15. Anorthosite Rocks rich in the mineral feldspar, making up much of the Moon’s bright highland regions. Aperture The diameter of a telescope’s objective lens or primary mirror. Apogee The point in the Moon’s orbit where it is furthest from the Earth. At apogee, the Moon can reach a maximum distance of 406,700 km from the Earth. Apollo The manned lunar program of the United States. Between July 1969 and December 1972, six Apollo missions landed on the Moon, allowing a total of 12 astronauts to explore its surface. Asteroid A minor planet. A large solid body of rock in orbit around the Sun. Banded crater A crater that displays dusky linear tracts on its inner walls and/or floor. 250 Basalt A dark, fine-grained volcanic rock, low in silicon, with a low viscosity. Basaltic material fills many of the Moon’s major basins, especially on the near side. Glossary Basin A very large circular impact structure (usually comprising multiple concentric rings) that usually displays some degree of flooding with lava. The largest and most conspicuous lava- flooded basins on the Moon are found on the near side, and most are filled to their outer edges with mare basalts.
    [Show full text]
  • '17 JUL31 All
    SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS OF THE ) REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES ) 'W e ' C'ffitf pfliir :r-;-,-;rlnry Second Regular Session ) SENATE '17 JUL 31 All '33 Senate Bill No. 1529 RECE iVI D £':■ (In substitution of Senate Bill Nos. 420, 556, 608, 671, 915, 1081 and 1T74)- Prepared jointly by the Committees on Education, Arts and Culture, Ways and Means and Finance, with Senators Legarda, Binay, Trilianes IV, Aquino IV, Ejercito and Escudero as authors AN ACT STRENGTHENING THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE PHILIPPINES, REPEALING FOR THE PURPOSE REPUBLIC ACT NO. 8492, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE NATIONAL MUSEUM ACT OF 1998, AND APPROPRIATING FUNDS THEREFOR Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Philippines in Congress assembled: 1 SECTION 1. Short Title. - This Act shall be known as the ‘‘National Museum of the 2 Philippines Act”. 3 4 SEC. 2. Declaration of Policy. - It is the policy of the State to pursue and support the cultural 5 development of the Filipino people, through the preservation, enrichment and dynamic evolution of 6 Filipino national culture, based on the principle of unity in diversity in a climate of free artistic and 7 intellectual expression. 8 9 SEC. 3. Name of the Agency. - The National Museum is hereby renamed as the “National 10 Museum of the Philippines”, or, alternatively in Filipino, “Pambansang Museo ng Pilipinas'\ 11 12 The shortened name “National Museum” or “Pambansang Museo" shall be understood as 13 exclusively referring to the same, and its use in any manner or part of any name with respect to any 14 institution within the Philippines shall be reserved exclusively to the same.
    [Show full text]
  • Nationalism, Citizenship and the Politics of Filipino Migrant Labor ROBYN M
    Citizenship Studies, Vol. 6, No. 3, 2002 Migrant Heroes: Nationalism, Citizenship and the Politics of Filipino Migrant Labor ROBYN M. RODRIGUEZ The Philippine state has popularized the idea of Filipino migrants as the country’s ‘new national heroes’, critically transforming notions of Filipino citizenship and citizenship struggles. As ‘new national heroes’, migrant workers are extended particular kinds of economic and welfare rights while they are abroad even as they are obligated to perform particular kinds of duties to their home state. The author suggests that this transnationalize d citizenship, and the obligations attached to it, becomes a mode by which the Philippine state ultimately disciplines Filipino migrant labor as exible labor. However, as citizenship is extended to Filipinos beyond the borders of the Philippines, the globalizatio n of citizenship rights has enabled migrants to make various kinds of claims on the Philippine state. Indeed, these new transnationa l political strug- gles have given rise not only to migrants’ demands for rights, but to alternative nationalisms and novel notions of citizenship that challenge the Philippine state’s role in the export and commodi cation of migrant workers. Introduction In 1995, Flor Contemplacion, a Singapore-based Filipina domestic worker, was hanged by the Singaporean government for allegedly killing another Filipina domestic worker and the child in her charge. When news about her imminent death reached the Philippines, Filipinos, throughout the nation and around the globe, went to the streets demanding that the Philippine government intervene to prevent Contemplacion’s execution. Fearing Philippine– Singapore diplomatic relations would be threatened, then-Philippine President Fidel Ramos was reluctant to intercede despite evidence that may have proved her innocence.
    [Show full text]
  • Country Paper for the Workshop on Preservation of Cultural Heritage
    RESTORATION OF HERITAGE STRUCTURES: A CONTRIBUTION IN SOCIAL UNITY THROUGH CULTURE, ARTS AND HISTORY 7TH ASIAN NATIONAL MUSEUMS ASSOCIATION MEETING & CONFERENCE 29-31 October 2019 NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE PHILIPPINES RESTORATION OF HERITAGE STRUCTURES: A CONTRIBUTON IN SOCIAL UNITY THROUGH CULTURE, ARTS AND HISTORY IS THE 1 | P a g e Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador, Ph.D. Deputy Director - General Engr. Jainab Aimee Tahil-Altillero Chief Administrative Officer – Officer in Charge Facilities Management Division Research, Collections and Conservation Management Division National Museum of the Philippines RESTORATION OF HERITAGE STRUCTURES: A CONTRIBUTON IN SOCIAL UNITY THROUGH CULTURE, ARTS AND HISTORY Ana Maria Theresa P. Labrador, Ph.D. Jainab Aimee Tahil-Altillero ABSTRACT INTRODUCTION: The 7th Asian National Museum Association meeting and conference this 29th – 31st October in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is an occasion for the Asian museum members to gather and share its individual museums’ best practices and standards. This will encourage the other members to replicate the systems in all museums. National Museum of the Philippines is mandated to establish, manage and develop museums. As such, restoration of heritage structures is an important aspect of preserving the Filipino culture, arts and history. It is important to note that the success achieved in all efforts to socially unify through culture, arts and history, the challenges comes alongside its process. Challenges comes in many forms starting from the availability of funds and extends to many factors depending on the government’s priority. In the case of the National Museum of the Philippines, it took a big leap of restoring the heritage structures and the rest followed like improvement of repositories for preservation of collections, improvement of exhibitions, research endeavors, museum services and others.
    [Show full text]
  • CIA Files Relating to Heinz Felfe, SS Officer and KGB Spy
    CIA Files Relating to Heinz Felfe, SS officer and KGB Spy Norman J. W. Goda Ohio University Heinz Felfe was an officer in Hitler’s SS who after World War II became a KGB penetration agent, infiltrating West German intelligence for an entire decade. He was arrested by the West German authorities in 1961 and tried in 1963 whereupon the broad outlines of his case became public knowledge. Years after his 1969 release to East Germany (in exchange for three West German spies) Felfe also wrote memoirs and in the 1980s, CIA officers involved with the case granted interviews to author Mary Ellen Reese.1 In accordance with the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act the CIA has released significant formerly classified material on Felfe, including a massive “Name File” consisting of 1,900 pages; a CIA Damage Assessment of the Felfe case completed in 1963; and a 1969 study of Felfe as an example of a successful KGB penetration agent.2 These files represent the first release of official documents concerning the Felfe case, forty-five years after his arrest. The materials are of great historical significance and add detail to the Felfe case in the following ways: • They show in more detail than ever before how Soviet and Western intelligence alike used former Nazi SS officers during the Cold War years. 1 Heinz Felfe, Im Dienst des Gegners: 10 Jahre Moskaus Mann im BND (Hamburg: Rasch & Röhring, 1986); Mary Ellen Reese, General Reinhard Gehlen: The CIA Connection (Fairfax, VA: George Mason University Press, 1990), pp. 143-71. 2 Name File Felfe, Heinz, 4 vols., National Archives and Records Administration [NARA], Record Group [RG] 263 (Records of the Central Intelligence Agency), CIA Name Files, Second Release, Boxes 22-23; “Felfe, Heinz: Damage Assessment, NARA, RG 263, CIA Subject Files, Second Release, Box 1; “KGB Exploitation of Heinz Felfe: Successful KGB Penetration of a Western Intelligence Service,” March 1969, NARA, RG 263, CIA Subject Files, Second Release, Box 1.
    [Show full text]
  • The Cold War and East-Central Europe, 1945–1989
    FORUM The Cold War and East-Central Europe, 1945–1989 ✣ Commentaries by Michael Kraus, Anna M. Cienciala, Margaret K. Gnoinska, Douglas Selvage, Molly Pucci, Erik Kulavig, Constantine Pleshakov, and A. Ross Johnson Reply by Mark Kramer and V´ıt Smetana Mark Kramer and V´ıt Smetana, eds. Imposing, Maintaining, and Tearing Open the Iron Curtain: The Cold War and East-Central Europe, 1945–1989. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2014. 563 pp. $133.00 hardcover, $54.99 softcover, $54.99 e-book. EDITOR’S NOTE: In late 2013 the publisher Lexington Books, a division of Rowman & Littlefield, put out the book Imposing, Maintaining, and Tearing Open the Iron Curtain: The Cold War and East-Central Europe, 1945–1989, edited by Mark Kramer and V´ıt Smetana. The book consists of twenty-four essays by leading scholars who survey the Cold War in East-Central Europe from beginning to end. East-Central Europe was where the Cold War began in the mid-1940s, and it was also where the Cold War ended in 1989–1990. Hence, even though research on the Cold War and its effects in other parts of the world—East Asia, South Asia, Latin America, Africa—has been extremely interesting and valuable, a better understanding of events in Europe is essential to understand why the Cold War began, why it lasted so long, and how it came to an end. A good deal of high-quality scholarship on the Cold War in East-Central Europe has existed for many years, and the literature on this topic has bur- geoned in the post-Cold War period.
    [Show full text]
  • The Failed Marshall Plan: Learning from US Foreign Policy Missteps
    Transcript The Failed Marshall Plan: Learning from US Foreign Policy Missteps Daniel Kurtz-Phelan Executive Editor, Foreign Affairs, Author, The China Mission: George Marshall’s Unfinished War, 1945- 47 Chair: Dr Leslie Vinjamuri Head, US and the Americas Programme and Dean of the Queen Elizabeth II Academy, Chatham House 10 September 2018 The views expressed in this document are the sole responsibility of the speaker(s) and participants, and do not necessarily reflect the view of Chatham House, its staff, associates or Council. Chatham House is independent and owes no allegiance to any government or to any political body. It does not take institutional positions on policy issues. This document is issued on the understanding that if any extract is used, the author(s)/speaker(s) and Chatham House should be credited, preferably with the date of the publication or details of the event. Where this document refers to or reports statements made by speakers at an event, every effort has been made to provide a fair representation of their views and opinions. The published text of speeches and presentations may differ from delivery. © The Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2018. 10 St James’s Square, London SW1Y 4LE T +44 (0)20 7957 5700 F +44 (0)20 7957 5710 www.chathamhouse.org Patron: Her Majesty The Queen Chairman: Stuart Popham QC Director: Dr Robin Niblett Charity Registration Number: 208223 2 The Failed Marshall Plan: Learning from US Foreign Policy Missteps Dr Leslie Vinjamuri And it’s wonderful to see so many people here on a Monday afternoon after a lovely weekend.
    [Show full text]
  • Ethnonationalist Triads: Assessing the Influence of Kin Groups on Civil Wars
    ETHNONATIONALIST TRIADS Assessing the Influence of Kin Groups on Civil Wars By LARS-ERIK CEDERMAN, LUC GIRARDIN, and KRISTIAN SKREDE GLEDITSCH* ATIONALISM has the potential to transgress and transform Nstate borders. Irredentism represents the most radical form of border transformation, but border-transgressing effects, such as exter- nal support by kin groups short of major military interventions, may also make ethnonationalist civil wars more likely. Given the highly asymmetric nature of such conflicts, which by definition feature non- state groups challenging well-armed governments, it can be expected that the former will seek support from related groups in neighboring countries. Even a quick look at the ethnopolitical map reveals that there are plenty of structural opportunities for such transborder influences. Whereas relatively few cases of outright irredentism have occurred, ethnonationalist civil wars have often featured external support from kin groups across state borders.1 Examples include Kurdish transborder cooperation against hostile state governments such as Turkey and Iraq.2 Transborder nationalism can also be blamed for having contributed to ethnic conflict in Croatia, Bosnia, Kosovo, and other parts of the for- mer Yugoslavia.3 Although the Russian “near abroad” that emerged in the post–cold war period has generally been more peaceful than ex- * We thank Paul Diehl, Harvey Starr, Jeremy Weinstein, Andreas Wimmer, participants at semi- nars at the University of Nottingham and Trinity College Dublin, as well as three anonymous review- ers and the editors for helpful comments and suggestions. This research was supported by grants from the European Science Foundation (06ECRPFP004), the Research Council of Norway (180441/V10), the Swiss National Science Foundation (105511-116795/1), and the U.K.
    [Show full text]