The Kachin Rangers on Film
During World War II, a group known as “Detachment 101” of the Office of Strategic Services (the precursor of the CIA) started to work inside Burma to gain intelligence about…
How Việt Nam Became Việt Nam
I keep coming across writings in English in which people talk about how Việt Nam came to be called Việt Nam, and nobody has the story right. Humility aside, the…
Photographing Southeast Asia for the CIA
I just came across a fascinating document in the US National Archives from 1961 called “Snapshots at Random” by Jane Schnell. I do not know the context in which the…
The Đại Nam nhất thống toàn đồ and the Mapping of the Mekong
I asked in a post below where the Đại Nam nhất thống toàn đồ (Complete Map of Unified Đại Nam) comes from. I see it a lot, and it is…
Beautifully Digitized Old Maps (and Time to Form the PLF)
If you have never seen the David Rumsey Map Collection, then take a look around, it is absolutely glorious. When it comes to geography, there are of course some issues…
Watch out Thailand!! They’re Coming!!!
Spending yet more time looking around in the US National Archives through the Online Public Access portal, I came across some other good examples of American Cold War propaganda. This…
“You’ve Got Mail” in 1902 Sandakan (or How to Read Against the Grain of Colonial Era Sources)
I like the beginning scenes of the film, The Lover (L’Amant). You see a ferry crossing the Mekong that is filled with Vietnamese taking goods to market, but those people…
Santa Claus in the Philippines
“You better watch out / You better not cry / You better not pout / I’m telling you why / Santa Claus is coming. . . . . . to…
The Fall of Japan and the Rise of English in Southeast Asia
For better or for worse, English has become “the” global language. This is very much evident in Southeast Asia where English proficiency is being promoted as key to the integration…
Propaganda at the End of the First Indochina War
It’s well known that one of the ways that the US started to support South Vietnam in 1954 was through propaganda. Edward Lansdale is the person who is usually associated…
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