SOVIET PERSPECTIVES OF CONFLICTS IN SOUTHEAST ASIA: A REEXAMINATION OF SOVIET POLICIES DURING THE PRE AND POST COLONIAL ERA

This dissertation examines and evaluates the Soviet foreign policy initiatives towards the Southeast Asian countries in a historical perspective. Emphasis is placed on the post-World War II, anti-colonial period, on specific events which affected the countries of the area and on the significance of the Sino-Soviet dispute in causing, intensifying and/or "resolving" ethnic conflicts. The fundamental thesis of the dissertation is the following: that the Soviet foreign policy towards Southeast Asia, as evidenced by its support of contending nations, is ideologically inconsistent and more reflective of a great power's attitude in exploiting national disputes for the promotion of its own interests, rather than an expression of proletarian internationalism. More specifically, the study examines in depth the apparent contradictions in a professed Soviet commitment to support proletarian internationalism, while at the same time, Moscow provided assistance and advice to strictly nationalistic and bourgeois movements.;Based on extensive primary and secondary research material the dissertation reaches the general conclusion that despite Soviet and Chinese efforts, relations among Southeast Asian countries are genuinely affected by ethnic attitudes, even though some of them have adopted socialist doctrines to attain the long-deprived national goal of complete liberation and sovereignty. Finally, the dissertation concludes that the Soviet objectives of expanding socialism and supporting national liberation in the area seem to be in a collision course with individualistic and strictly nationalist goals of the Southeast Asian ruling elites.;Although this dissertation follows a historical pattern with emphasis on Soviet initiative during the decolonization period, some attention is given to the current conflict among Socialist states on the Indochina Peninsula and the competing roles played by the Chinese and Soviet Communists in seeking to draw them closer to their respective camps.