EIGHT NATION MAKERS

by Willard H. Hanna ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 14, 1964

(YA) ""Southeast Asia's Charismatic Statesmen"" are the subjects of these short, informal, irreverent, and completely fascinating biographies. The first and by far the longest piece is devoted to Indonesia's amazing president, Sukarno; from there we move on to Deodasio Macapagal of the Philippines, King Bhumibol of Thailand, the ""Mad Captain"" Kong Le of Laos, Prince Sihanouk of Cambodia, Burma's General Ne Win, Malaysia's Tengku Abdul Rahman, and South Vietnam's late unlamented Ngo Dinh Diem. Along the way we are also introduced to each man's principal friends and enemies, and--for quite possibly the first time in print--it becomes almost easy to tell them all apart, despite their bewildering names and usually inscrutable activities. Mr. Hanna writes about them with a bemused familiarity which would seem contemptuous if it were not so delightfully lucid and knowledgeable and, ultimately, sympathetic. These ""sometimes foundering founding fathers,"" as he points out, ""face an omnipresent world audience whose demands are fantastically exacting."" They are, or were, real people as well as figures in an incredibly complicated chess game whose stakes cannot yet be known, and it is as people that we see them here. A book which makes some sense out of our current Southeast Asian involvements, this should reach a wide audience.

Pub Date: Oct. 14, 1964

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: St Martin's Press

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 1964

Categories: NONFICTION