Experiments with Marxism-Leninism in Cold War Southeast Asia

366 Pages·2022·3.712 MB·English

by  Matthew Galway, Marc H. Opper

EXPERIMENTS WITH
MARXISM-LENINISM
IN COLD WAR
SOUTHEAST ASIA

EXPERIMENTS WITH
MARXISM-LENINISM
IN COLD WAR
SOUTHEAST ASIA
EDITED BY MATTHEW GALWAY
AND MARC H. OPPER
ASIAN STUDIES SERIES MONOGRAPH 16

For Charlotte
Published by ANU Press
The Australian National University
Canberra ACT 2600, Australia
Email: [email protected]
Available to download for free at press.anu.edu.au
ISBN (print): 9781760465292
ISBN (online): 9781760465308
WorldCat (print): 1336522667
WorldCat (online): 1336522659
DOI: 10.22459/EMLCWSA.2022
This title is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-
NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence.
The full licence terms are available at
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode
Cover design and layout by ANU Press
Cover photograph: ‘At an anti-aircraft emplacement in a Laotian liberated area. The
fighters and commanders of an air defence unit of the Laotian People’s Liberation Army are
studying Chairman Mao’s theories on people’s war. They praise as a great, unassailable truth
Chairman Mao’s wise assertion that “imperialism and all reactionaries are paper tigers”.’
China Pictorial 7, 1968, page 35. Public domain.
This book is published under the aegis of the Asian Studies Editorial Board
of ANU Press.
This edition © 2022 ANU Press
Contents
Abbreviations ix
Maps and plates xiii
Foreword xv
Brantly Womack
Introduction 1
Marc H. Opper and Matthew Galway
Part One
1. ‘One eye in the chain of the Asian movement’: Muslims
adapting Marx in the Dutch East Indies, 1927–42 33
Lin Hongxuan
2. ‘The most dissolute and dishonest’ Khmer to aid China:
Hu Nim and indigenising the Maoist ideological system, 
1955–77 69
Matthew Galway
3. Buddhist socialism and national identity in colonial and
postwar Burma: An analysis of U Nu’s political thought 107
Khine Thant Su
4. Heavier than Mount Banahaw: ‘Five Golden Rays’ and the
‘Filipinisation’ of Maoism 137
Ramon Guillermo, Teo Marasigan, Amado Anthony G. Mendoza III
and Dominic Sy
5. Partai Republik Indonesia: Communist exiles and their
noncommunist approaches to anticolonialism 165
Kankan Xie
Part Two
6. Forging the masses in Malaya: Mass mobilisation,
the united front and revolutionary violence in Malaya,
1939–51 199
Marc H. Opper
7. Recycling violence: The theory and practice of reeducation
camps in postwar Vietnam 219
Hoang Minh Vu
8. Return to armed revolution: The Pathet Lao and the Chinese
Communist Party on paths to national liberation 239
Nicholas R. Zeller
9. ‘Victory of the aggregate strength of the era’: Lê Duẩn,
Vietnam and the three revolutionary tidal waves 271
Khuê Diệu Đỗ
10. Becoming Marxist: Ethnic Hmong in the Communist Party
of Thailand 299
Ian G. Baird
Index 333
Abbreviations
AAKC Association d’Amitié Khmero–Chinoise
(Khmer–Chinese Friendship Association)
AEK Association des Étudiants Khmers
(Khmer Students Association)
AFPFL Anti-Fascist People’s Freedom League (Burma)
ARVN Army of the Republic of Vietnam
BPP Border Patrol Police (Thailand)
CCP Chinese Communist Party
CID Criminal Investigation Department
Comintern Communist International
COSVN Central Office for South Vietnam
CPK Communist Party of Kampuchea
CPP Communist Party of the Philippines
CPT Communist Party of Thailand
DBA Dobama Asiayone (We Burmans Association)
DEI Dutch East Indies
DK Democratic Kampuchea
DRV Democratic Republic of Vietnam
FGR Five Golden Rays
FUNK Front uni national du Kampuchéa (National United
Front of Kampuchea)
GMD Guomindang
GRUNK Gouvernement royal d’union nationale du Kampuchéa
(Royal Government of the National Union
of Kampuchea)
ix
EXPERIMENTS WITH MARXISM-LENINISM IN COLD WAR SOUTHEAST ASIA
ICP Indochinese Communist Party
ICSC International Commission for Supervision and Control
LPP Lao People’s Party
MCP Malayan Communist Party
MNLA Malayan National Liberation Army
MPAJA Malayan People’s Anti-Japanese Army
NAM Non-Aligned Movement
NIS Nederlandsch-Indische Spoorweg Maatschappij
(Dutch East Indies Railway Company)
NKPM Nederlandsch Koloniale Petroleum Maatschappij
(Dutch Colonial Petroleum Corporation)
NLHX Neo Lao Hak Xat (Lao Patriotic Front)
PARI Partai Republik Indonesia (Indonesian
Republican Party)
Partindo Partai Indonesia (Indonesia Party)
Pathet Lao Lao People’s Liberation Army
PCF Parti Communiste Français (French Communist Party)
Permi Persatuan Muslim Indonesia (Indonesian
Muslim Union)
PKI Partai Komunis Indonesia (Communist Party
of Indonesia)
PLA People’s Liberation Army (China)
PLAT People’s Liberation Army of Thailand
PNI Partai Nasional Indonesia (Indonesian National Party)
PRC People’s Republic of China
PSII Partai Sarekat Islam Indonesia (Islamic Association Party
of Indonesia)
RKU Royal Khmer University
RLG Royal Lao Government
RVN Republic of Vietnam
Saṅgam Saṅgam Rāstr Niyam (Popular Socialist Community)
SRV Socialist Republic of Vietnam
UEK Union des Etudiants Khmers (Khmer Students Union)
x