ABSTRACT
The US- PRC rapprochement dramatically altered the character of the Cold War in East Asia. The product of Washington's need to extricate itself from Vietnam and Beijing's fear of the Soviets, it aligned the United States, Japan, and the PRC against the Soviet Union. During the 1950s and 1960s, Southeast Asia's instability and conflicts made them prime targets of Cold War rivalry in which they figured as prizes and pawns of the contending Chinese, Soviets, and Americans. Under the American domino theory, one might expect that the fall of Indochina to the communists would have emboldened China to redouble its efforts to foment people's wars in neighboring countries. The Cambodian civil war provided the backdrop for the emergence of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) as a major diplomatic player. Established by Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the Philippines, ASEAN was dismissed by the Soviets and Chinese as an anti-communist alliance similar to SEATO.
