The main body of the text that follows appeared in the Summer 1988 issue of Diplomatic History. It offers a summary and critique of the scholarly literature pertaining to the Cold War in Asia, concentrating on that work published between 1980 and 1987. A substantial number of books and articles on U.S.-Asian relations during the Cold War era has been written in the intervening eight years, of course, some of which have pushed the temporal and conceptual boundaries of the field in exciting, new directions. Consequently, I have added a postscript to the original essay, in which I examine the larger themes and issues engaged by the more recent scholarship on the Cold War in Asia. Among other matters, I seek in the postscript to reexamine my own earlier conclusions about the state of the field.

The past decade has witnessed a tremendous outpouring of scholarly books and articles dealing with the Cold War in Asia. Given the significance of the subject, this veritable avalanche of work should not be surprising. Indeed, as Akira Iriye noted in a recent essay: “America's military, political, economic, and cultural involvement in the Asia-Pacific region” over the last fifty years “has fundamentally altered Asian history, American society, and international affairs in general.” This essay will examine the overall direction of that historical literature. In addition to noting the characteristics that tie these works together, it will suggest significant interpretive differences that separate the newer works from each other and from previous scholarship in this field.