This is a wide-ranging, ambitious and informative work on an immense subject. Given the vast terrain and limited space, Roger Buckley has had to resist the temptations of detailed analysis and thorough examination, and has deftly compromised on the side of simplicity. Readers thus benefit from a concise overview mercifully free of jargon and theoretical posturing. The target audience is undergraduate students, and the text is therefore pitched at those who are assumed to have little background knowledge and limited capacity or time to absorb the rarefied debates.
The eight chapters, arranged chronologically, give us a swift tour of what the author refers to as Asia's American half-century. The Cold War figures prominently through much of the narrative, and there are separate chapters on the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. Readers begin with the aftermath of World War II and are projected into the first two decades of the 21st century with only the central anchoring position of the United States remaining unchanged. Buckley argues that this position was earned in World War II and that the region has, with some prominent exceptions, generally benefited from the U.S. presence.
In his view, these benefits have long been underestimated and unappreciated. In response to those who argue for withdrawal, Buckley writes, "Any American attempt to quit Asia would likely produce regional confrontation and conflagration, mass migrations and widespread misery, as well as the more prosaic factors of the loss of markets and capital investment."