Peer-reviewed
The American Image of Southeast Asia 1790-1865, A Preliminary Assessment
During the last ten years an increasing number of scholars have turned their attention to examining the history of American relations with Eastern Asia. Almost without exception these studies have focused on American relations with China, Japan and Korea and have tended to ignore the areas of Southeast Asia which are at present the focus of so much attention and concern on the part of the American public and government. This is all the more surprising when one considers that American interests and activities in this area are at least as old as those in China. American Marines first landed in Vietnam in 1846 not 1965. There are records of American pirates and traders (sometimes it was hard to distinguish between them) in the East Indies as early as the 17th century, and before the beginning of the 19th century Americans had already opened a thriving trade with Java, Sumatra and the Philippine Islands
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