In 2012, Barack Obama became the first U.S. president ever to visit
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma. This official state visit marked
a new period in the long and sinuous diplomatic relationship
between the United States and Burma/Myanmar, which Kenton Clymer
examines in A Delicate Relationship. From the challenges of
decolonization and heightened nationalist activities that emerged
in the wake of World War II to the Cold War concern with domino
states to the rise of human rights policy in the 1980s and beyond,
Clymer demonstrates how Burma/Myanmar has fit into the broad
patterns of U.S. foreign policy and yet has never been fully
integrated into diplomatic efforts in the region of Southeast Asia.
When Burma, a British colony since the nineteenth century, achieved
independence in 1948, the United States feared that the country
might be the first Southeast Asian nation to fall to the
communists, and it embarked on a series of efforts to prevent this.
In 1962, General Ne Win, who toppled the government in a coup
d'etat, established an authoritarian socialist military junta that
severely limited diplomatic contact and led to a period in which
the primary American diplomatic concern became Burma's increasing
opium production. Ne Win's rule ended (at least officially) in
1988, when the Burmese people revolted against the oppressive
military government. Aung San Suu Kyi emerged as the charismatic
leader of the opposition and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
1991. Amid these great changes in policy and outlook, Burma/Myanmar
remained fiercely nonaligned and, under Ne Win, isolationist. The
limited diplomatic exchange that resulted meant that the state was
often a frustrating puzzle to U.S. officials. Clymer explores
attitudes toward Burma (later Myanmar), from anxious anticommunism
during the Cold War to interventions to stop drug trafficking to
debates in Congress, the White House, and the Department of State
over how to respond to the emergence of the opposition movement in
the late 1980s. The junta's brutality, its refusal to relinquish
power, and its imprisonment of opposition leaders resulted in
public and Congressional pressure to try to change the regime.
Indeed, Aung San Suu Kyi's rise to prominence fueled the new
foreign policy debate that was focused on human rights, and in that
climate Burma/Myanmar held particularly large symbolic importance
for U.S. policy makers. Congressional and public opinion favored
sanctions, while U.S. presidents and their administrations were
more cautious. Clymer's account concludes with President Obama's
visits in 2012 and 2014, and visits to the United States by Aung
San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein, which marked the
establishment of a new, warmer relationship with a relatively open
Myanmar.
General
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