ABSTRACT
As the first international conference of colored peoples, the Bandung Conference of 1955 represented more than one half of the world's population. The twenty-eight nations nominally comprised four orientation blocs—neutralism, communism, socialism and democracy—and if the great divisive factor in the world is differences in ideology, as the West claims, then the Bandung Conference should not have been held at all. The language problem was so pervasive at Bandung that English, which is not the language of any of them, was made the official language. There were two Vietnams at Bandung, represented by the same ethnic strain, but one was Communist and the other was not. In short, the Asian-African nations that met at Bandung seemed to be, as the London Times said, an assemblage of "self-irritants". The London Times spoke the West's conscience, the West's fear, the West's hope.
