Wrestling with Asia: A Memoir - Frank Mount Paperback – July 1, 2012

He didn't really single-handedly save the world from South East Asian Communists but the hubristic author would have it so. Some events and those present seem incomplete, perhaps in order to flatter the author's role. The book might help round out your knowledge a little more but make sure to read more widely as well.

Frank Mount is a veteran Australian journalist who observed at close proximity the dramatic events unfolding in South-East Asia over a 40 year period from the 1960s onwards, including in Vietnam, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, Thailand, East Timor and Malaysia. He kept detailed diaries of his dealings with some of the key players in these countries (not to mention the CIA) and his writing is pithy, insightful and witty and has a great sense of immediacy.For example, Mount gives us behind-the-scenes descriptions of the rise and fall of President Soeharto in Indonesia, the last days before the fall of Saigon to the communists in 1975, and later the emergence of militant Islam in the region. One of the book's many highlights is a hair-raising account of Mount's miraculous escape from a burning hotel in Bangkok where he was one of a handful of survivors.However, Mount was not merely an acute observer of history in the making. He was also a direct participant in many instances, for example, in furthering the growth of regional cooperation leading to ASEAN and APEC and in fostering democratic institutions in some countries, notably Indonesia.For anyone with an interest in the recent history of S-E Asia, Wrestling With Asia is a must read as it provides plenty of food for thought and occasionally reasons to revise one's thinking about the whys and wherefores of an important period of the world's recent history.