Cold War Monks: Buddhism and America's Secret Strategy in Southeast Asia

by Eugene Ford

How did the U.S. government make use of a "Buddhist policy" in Southeast Asia during the Cold War despite the American principle that the state should not meddle with religion? To answer this question, Eugene Ford delved deep into an unprecedented range of U.S. and Thai sources and conducted numerous oral history interviews with key informants. Ford uncovers a riveting story filled with U.S. national security officials, diplomats, and scholars seeking to understand and build relationships within the Buddhist monasteries of Southeast Asia. This fascinating narrative provides a new look at how the Buddhist leaderships of Thailand and its neighbors became enmeshed in Cold War politics and in the U.S. government's clandestine efforts to use a predominant religion of Southeast Asia as an instrument of national stability to counter communist revolution.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published January 2, 2018

Reviews

[Ramzey · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not at all what i expected,

The author was Writing to much boring information about buddhism i wasn't at all interested in reading so much about buddhism.
The author assumes you already have alot of knowledge about buddhism. I was more interested in the Cold war, didn't enjoy his Writing at all.

[Jasmine Chia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some really interesting tidbits but the focus on the irrelevant WFB / Americans trivialises the whole thing (a function of over reliance on English-language sources)…fundamentally this is not a story about American influence but the power/politicization of Buddhism in SEA. It’s okay to leave the Americans out sometimes, even if the subject is the Cold War…