ABSTRACT
The role of the Soviet Union in Southeast Asia in the 1980s will be more self-confident, more wide-ranging, and probably more effective than in any earlier period. Since at least the mid-1970s, Moscow has prepared the groundwork in this region for initiatives of a political, economic, and to a lesser extent a military nature, and Southeast Asia will now witness an active Soviet effort designed to capitalize on the investment. In 1978 the Communist-world economic group known as COMECOM, led by the USSR, for the first time admitted to full membership a nation from Asia. China was quick to respond favorably to the overtures from the non-communist and essentially “pro-Western” states that comprise ASEAN. Aside from the Philippines, the other ASEAN state where the Soviet Union probably expects to make the most headway is Malaysia.
