Book Review: South-East Asia: Burma from Kingdom to Republic
| Author | James Barrikgton |
| Published date | 01 March 1967 |
| Date | 01 March 1967 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/002070206702200161 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
BOOK
REvIEws 153
in
the
area,
and
newspaper
files.
He
attempts
no
major
social
or
sociological
analysis
of
what
is
taking
place
in
the
Malay
archipelago.
He
is
concerned
rather
with
the
flow
of
day-to-day
politics,
generally
at
the
highest
level,
and
it
is
in
this
arena
that
his
talents
are
most
evident-as
any
who
read
his
skilful
treatment
of
the
course of
events
preceding
Singapore's
secession will
agree.
A
major
difficulty
in
studies
of
this
sort
is
the
temptation
to
project
the
course
of
present
events
too
boldly
into
the
future.
Thus
Mr.
Brackman,
in
seeking
to
take
into
account
the
over-riding
sig-
nificance
in
his
area
of
the
Sino-Soviet
dispute
(a
dispute
which
he
does
not
attempt
to
analyze
in
depth),
concludes
that
this rivalry
will
cause
a
"war
by
proxy"
in
the
Malay
archipelago
for
"years
to
come"
(p.
289)
-only
to
acknowledge,
as
his
book
was
in
press,
that
the
events
of
September
30
in
Jakarta
necessitate
extensive
revision
of
this
forecast.
A
more
deliberate
study
might
be
handicapped
by
the
necessity. Mr.
Brackman's
is
not.
His
material
is
presented
as
a
contemporary
political
report,
scrupulous in
its
attention
to
reported
fact
and
sensibly
com-
posed;
so
long
as
it
is
read
in
this light,
its
value
as
a
record
of
what
has
happened
during
the
last
decade
in
the
interrelationship
of
Malaysia
and
Indonesia (and
to
a
lesser extent
of
the
Philippines)
will
be
respected.
Dartmouth
College
CHARLES
B.
MAcLANE
BURMA
FROM
KINGDOM
TO
REPUBLIC.
A
Historical
and
Political Analysis.
By
Frank
N.
Trager.
1966.
(New
York:
Frederick
A.
Praeger.
Toronto:
Burns
&
MacEachern.
455pp.
$12.00)
In
this
book,
Dr. Trager
emerges
as
an
implacable
Cold
War
Warrior
who
believes
that
there
is
virtually
no
limit
to
what the
United
States
could
have
done,
or
could
still
do,
in
Asia
and
elsewhere.
He
seems
also
to
have
convinced
himself
that
independent
Burma
has,
beginning
with
King
Mindon's
exchange
of
letters
with
the
President
of
the
United
States
in
1857
(following
British
annexation
of
a
large
part
of
Burma),
always
wanted
some
kind
of alliance
with
the
United
States;
that
Burma's
current
policy
of
non-alignment
was
in
part
forced
on
her
by
the
rebuffs
adminstered
by
the
United Kingdom
and
United
States
when
Burma
reached out
for
"powerful
allies"
immediately
on
regaining
her
independence
(thus
paying
scant regard
to
Burma's
entirely
voluntary
decision
to
opt
out
of
the
Commonwealth,
and
to
the
fact
that
her
primary international
concern
in
the first
years
of
independence
was to
keep
out
foreign
influence
of
any
kind
while she
dealt
with
her
multitude
of
internal
problems)
that
Burma's
brand
of
non-alignment
has
been
somewhat different
from
those
of
some
other
non-aligned
nations
(which
may
well
be
so,
but
does
not prove
anything
beyond
that).
That
this
combination provides
a
doubtful basis
for
an
objective
study
of
Burma
and
her
problems
in
today's world
is
proved
by
the
book
itself.
It
is
a
great
pity
because
Dr.
Trager
has
clearly
gone
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