Disenchanted: Thailand's indigenisation of the American Cold War, seen through the experience of Gordon Young

Abstract

Oliver Gordon Young was a third-generation American Baptist missionary who served with the Central Intelligence Agency during the 1950s and the United States Agency for International Development during the 1960s. He left Southeast Asia in 1974 disenchanted with his missions in the border areas of Thailand, Burma, and Laos. His ‘disenchantments’ with these two preeminent American Cold War agencies illustrated what the United States had increasingly failed to grasp, which was the ‘indigenising’ nature of the Cold War in Thailand. This essay examines Young's career in Thailand and bordering regions to better understand the limitations of American foreign policymaking establishments and their Cold War policies.