NO PEACE FOR ASIA

by Harold R. Isaacs ‧ RELEASE DATE: April 8, 1947

A Cassandra imploring a deaf world to listen- such is Harold Isaacs as he hammers home a bitter indictment of the western powers who are sustaining a century-and-a-half old policy of keeping Asia a continent of serfs. He gives brief backgrounds of the present struggles in India, China, Burma, Malaya, Indochina, Indonesia, Korea, the Philippines, Manchuria and Japan, and he relates the present crises to the struggle of power politics. Britain, France, the United States, Russia and the Dutch are equally denounced for their exploitation of the Asiatics. He brands Chiang Kai-shek as a leader who has built his power as an able brigand, a ruthless egocentric. He sees Korea's ""liberation"" and resultant dismemberment as one of the great Asiatic ironies, product of Russian and American power politics. He writes of the scandal of Britain upholding French colonialism through Japanese troops and American equipment. He sees the conflicts between America and Russia as maneuvres to gain the last mile of territory, a strategic position in regard to oil, coal, food and manpower reserves, and accuses the U.S. of grooming Japan as a buffer state. He analyzes the American economic stake in China and the Philippines, and the bitter disillusionment of the peoples of Asia. He sees Russia embracing Czarist imperialism, as a supernationalist police state. Despite the weakness of the book in offering no solution but world revolution, despite its unrelieved pessimism of outlook, the book has urgency implemented by the author's years of first-hand study, extensive social and political knowledge, eighteen years as a reporter, Newsweek correspondent in China and Burma. Author of The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution.

Pub Date: April 8, 1947

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1947

Categories: NONFICTION