TIBOR MENDE. South-East Asia Between Two Worlds. Pp. viii; 337. New York: Library Publishers, 1955. $3.95

• Author: John Brown Mason
• Published date: 01 March 1956
• Date: 01 March 1956
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/000271625630400187
• Subject Matter: Articles

199
impelled by the urgencies of combating
the fields of public and cultural relations
communism into an acceptance of public
tend to stress commonality, while social
relations with political objectives. See on
and cultural anthropologists tend to em-
page 253 the statements: &dquo;Botanical ex-
phasize divergence. As an historian the
ploration and borrowing goes on all the
author tries to strike a balance.
time, of course, without creating any spe-
ALLAN B. COLE
cial feeling of indebtedness. For a cultural
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
effect there must be flowers plus publicity.&dquo;
In the Introduction and at
TIBOR MENDE. South-East Asia Between
two or three
places in the main study there
Two Worlds.
are allusions
Pp. viii; 337. New York:
to the thorny problem of possible conflicts
Library Publishers, 1955. $3.95.
of national interests capable of overriding
Dr. Tibor Mende, a native Hungarian
cultural appreciations. One looks in vain
and former economic editor of the Eu-
for ’an appraisal of how Japanese and
ropean edition of the New York Herald
American interests have developed since
Tribune, tells us how the people of Indo-
1945 in this connection. And there is not
nesia, Burma, and Pakistan live; what
much analysis of important sectors of Japa-
their problems are; and how they attempt
nese society which react rather differently
to solve them.
He believes that these
to American policies as well as to cultural
countries provide the answers to the prob-
ideas and products. Since the Japanese,
lems of Southeast Asia, which term he
too, know that &dquo;actions speak louder than
stretches unconventionally to include the
words&dquo;, what have been the effects of
vast territory from the Khyber Pass to
American policies on Japanese receptivity
Indonesia, including India, Pakistan, Cey-
to democratic ideas and practices, for ex-
lon, Burma, Thailand, Malaya, and the
ample ? There is not a single mention of
former French Indochina. This strategic
McCarthyism in this volume, though the
area includes 600 million people, or one-
reviewer seldom spent an evening among
fourth of mankind and contains important
Japanese intellectuals during 1953-54 when
raw materials which Soviet Russia and Red
that did not become a topic of conversa-
China lack. The author’s views are based
tion.
Americans do well to admit that
on his observations in these countries, most
democracy is an ideal toward which we
recently in 1952-53, and on a limited
strive and are joined by the Japanese.
amount of research.
Unfortunately, he
Yet, if our policies encourage the...