Outposts of Empire: Korea, Vietnam, and the Origins of the Cold War in Asia, 1949-1954

David A. Lenarcic is an assistant professor of history at Wilfrid
Laurier University.

As the author claims, Outposts of Empire is a welcome corrective to the
existing studies that adopt an “American-centric” view of the
history of the Cold War. It rectifies those imbalances by making a
regional comparison of the foreign policies crafted by the United States
and its allies (particularly Britain and Canada) in the years
immediately following World War II. Lee argues that the American
government strove to create an “informal empire” in Asia by backing
indigenous elites sympathetic to the West. He further asserts that while
London and Ottawa assumed a more defensive posture than did Washington,
they basically accepted this strategy for containing communism in the
region. Lee’s description of how the Canadian desire to restrain the
sometimes headstrong Americans was influenced by and supported British
objectives is particularly novel; it goes against the grain of the
historiography on Canadian diplomacy during this period, which tends to
focus on Ottawa’s “special relationship” with Washington.

The title of the book, however, is somewhat misleading, because it
suggests a broad examination of the subject when in fact the study
focuses on the Western perspective and, within that, the view from the
North Atlantic Triangle. On a more substantive note, the author’s
assertion that Britain and Canada differed with the United States on
tactics but not on strategy could have been more rigorously developed.
What options, if any, did London and Ottawa have? Could they have made
other choices? Did they want to? Did they try? The answers to these
questions could have been more fully fleshed out in order to assist the
reader in more accurately judging the two countries’ decision-making.
The same can be said of Lee’s statement that “[f]or Canada, ‘quiet
diplomacy’ was often a synonym for reluctant agreement to American
policy initiatives.” What degree of influence did Canada actually
wield, and could it have exerted more?

Criticisms aside, this assiduously researched book provides a
refreshing outlook on an otherwise well-worn subject.