ABSTRACT
Asia represented the 'hottest' theatre in a global Cold War that lasted for half a century. Across this vast region there were usually several undeclared wars and numerous civil wars in progress, all with their clandestine elements. Among the five occasions when the US National Security Council seriously considered the use of nuclear weapons in this period, four of these instances were triggered by events in Asia.! The volatility of this conflict owed something to its additional complexities, for intertwining with obvious Cold War frictions were the pressures of nationalism and anticolonialism, the politics of neutralism and non-alignment, together with the deep tensions of Sino-Soviet rivalry.
