Outposts of Empire

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Following 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. Steven Lee explores the foreign policy objectives of the United States, Canada, and, Great Britain and examines the role that economic and military aid played in their attempts to establish pro-Western, anti-communist governments on the periphery of communist East Asia. Drawing on a wide range of recently declassified documents, Lee outlines the regional and international context of American diplomatic history in Korea and Vietnam and analyses the relationship between containment, the bi-polar international system, and European and American concepts of empire at the beginning of the era of decolonization. He argues that although policy makers in Canada and the United Kingdom adopted a more defensive containment policy towards Communist China than the United States did, they generally supported American attempts to promote pro-Western elites in Korea and Vietnam. This is an important book for anyone interested in American foreign policy, Anglo-American relations, Asia, and the international system and Canadian foreign policy.