Review: Asia: History of Laos
| DOI | 10.1177/002070209805300320 |
| Date | 01 September 1998 |
| Published date | 01 September 1998 |
| Author | Steven H. Lee |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Reviews
LAMENT
FOR
AN ARMY
ASIA
The
decline
of
Canadian
military
Reviews
by Steven
H.
Lee
professionalism
University
of
British Columbia
John
A.
English
Toronto:
Irwin
and
the
Canadian
Insti- A
HISTORY OF
LAOS
tute
of
International
Affairs,
Contem-
Martin
Stuart-Fox
porary
Affairs
3,
New
York:
Cambridge
University
Press,
1998,
xiv,
1
lOpp,
$17.95
paper.
1997,
2
53pp, US$16.95
paper
If
Bothwell
and
Lenarcic
are
detatched
and
balanced
in
their
1--istorically,
the
peoples
of
assessment,
English
reflects
the
.Laos
have
been
subject
to
anger
and
outrage
of
a
retired
lieu- invasion
and
partition
by
a
series
of
tenant-colonel
and
the
analytical
regional
mandalas
-
power
centres
perspective
of
a
professor
of
mili-
exacting
tribute
-
in
Burma,
Viet-
tary
strategy
who
has
studied
the nam,
and
Thailand.
But
modern
history
of
staff
officer
training.
He
Laos,
the
main
subject
of
this
sym-
traces
the
flaws
in
Canadian
mili-
pathetic
and
compassionate
history,
tary
officer
training
over
the
last
was
an
outgrowth
of
French
imperi-
century,
which
contributed
to the
al
control
in
Indochina
in
the
late
latest
humiliation
in
Somalia.
nineteenth century.
The
country's
'Constant
buffeting
by
the
cross-
contemporary
borders
were
estab-
currents
of
unification,
bilingual-
lished by
a
series
of
treaties
between
ism
and
peacekeeping
had,
in
addi-
France
and
Siam
between
1893
and
tion
to
the
overt
civilianization
of
1907.
Nationalism
developed
slow-
NDHQ,
seriously
eroded
the
profes-
ly
under
French
rule,
and
the coun-
sional
foundations
of
army educa-
try
remained
a
disparate
and
divid-
tional
and
training
establishments
ed
state,
more
important
to
the
col-
set
up
after
the
war,'
he
writes.
onizers
as
an
adjunct
of
Vietnam
'With
little
depth
and
less
corpo-
than
as
an
entity
in
itself.
The
post-
rate
knowledge,
there thus
devel-
war
era
was even
more
arduous.
oped
a
widespread tendency to
Laos
achieved
independence
believe
that
the
only
kind
of
experi-
from
France
in
1953,
Stuart-Fox
ence
that
counted
was one's
own, reminds
us,
amidst
the
violence
of
preferably
gained in
officially
the
first
Indochinese
War. American
approved
highly
bureaucratized
and
North
Vietnamese
interven-
slots.'
tions
in
Laotian
politics
exacerbated
A
rant,
but
a
convincing
one.
the
country's
divisions
and
destroyed any possibility
of
achiev-
590
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Summer
1998
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