George McTurnan Kahin
Kahin as a visiting professor atMonash University in 1971
Born	(1918-01-25)January 25, 1918 Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
Died	January 29, 2000(2000-01-29) (aged 82) Rochester, New York, U.S.
Alma mater	Harvard University Stanford University Johns Hopkins University
Scientific career
Fields	History,political science
Institutions	Cornell University
Doctoral advisor	Rupert Emerson
Other academic advisors	Owen Lattimore
Doctoral students	Benedict Anderson,Herbert Feith,Daniel Lev[1]

George McTurnan Kahin^{[Note 1]} (January 25, 1918 – January 29, 2000) was an Americanhistorian andpolitical scientist. He was one of the leading experts onSoutheast Asia and a critic of United States involvement in theVietnam War.^[2] After completing his dissertation, which is still considered a classic onIndonesian history, Kahin became afaculty member atCornell University. At Cornell, he became the director of itsSoutheast Asia Program and founded the Cornell Modern Indonesia Project. Kahin's incomplete memoir was published posthumously in 2003.

George McTurnan Kahin was born on January 25, 1918, inBaltimore, Maryland, and grew up inSeattle, Washington. He received aB.S. inhistory fromHarvard University in 1940.^[3]

DuringWorld War II, Kahin served in theUnited States Army between 1942 and 1945, where "he was trained as one of a group of 60GIs who were to beparachuted intoJapanese-occupied Indonesia in advance ofAllied forces". However, the operation was canceled after it was determined that U.S. forces would bypass theIndies after thePotsdam Conference. As a result, his unit was sent to theEuropean theater. He earned the rank ofsergeant before leaving the Army.^[3] Kahin's interest inSoutheast Asia developed during this period, and he learned to speakIndonesian andDutch.^[2]

Kahin returned after the war to complete hisM.A. fromStanford University, which he received in 1946. His thesis was titledThe Political Position of the Chinese in Indonesia (Kahin 1946),^[4] describing the role ofChinese Indonesians in the new country. He continued to pursue of his interest in Southeast Asia, going to Indonesia in 1948 to conduct research during theIndonesian National Revolution. During his work, he was arrested by Dutch colonial authorities and expelled from the country. Kahin received aPh.D. inpolitical science fromJohns Hopkins University in 1951. His dissertation, titledNationalism and Revolution in Indonesia (Kahin 1952), is considered a classic onIndonesian history.^[3][5]

In 1951, Kahin became an assistant professor of government atCornell University. He receivedtenure and was promoted to associate professor in 1954; he became a full professor in 1959. He became the director of Cornell's Southeast Asia Program in 1961 and held the position until 1970. Kahin also founded the Cornell Modern Indonesia Project in 1954 and served as its director until his retirement in 1988. Between 1962 and 1963, he became aFulbright professor atLondon University. Kahin was a member of theCouncil on Foreign Relations and theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[3]

We voted for the maintenance ofacademic freedom, believing that without that essential quality there can be no relationship of any kind betweenblacks and a university, because without that quality you don't have a university.

On April 19, 1969, Cornell's Afro-American Societyoccupied theWillard Straight Hall student union in protest against "the university's racist attitudes and irrelevant curriculum" regarding racial issues.^[7] The university was divided between proponents of the inclusion of the principles ofsocial justice in course instruction and advocates ofacademic freedom for the faculty. This clash affected the Department of Government, where Kahin and a number of professors defending academic freedom resided.^[8] Many of these professors had considered leaving the university due to the administration's policies promoting racial justice, and many did following the end of the occupation. The following week, the Department of Government organized ateach-in on academic freedom, and Kahin was invited to speak at the event by department chair Peter Sharfman.^[9] HistorianWalter LaFeber would later remember his remarks as "the most eloquent speech about academic freedom I have ever encountered anywhere up to that time or since that time".^[10]

Kahin was a leading critic of theVietnam War and opposed United States involvement. He participated in a teach-in in May 1965 and led the anti-war position.^[5] Later, he co-wroteThe United States in Vietnam (Kahin & Lewis 1969) with Stanford professor John Lewis,^[11] a publication which helped to turn people in academia againstU.S. intervention in Vietnam.^[12] It was one of the most comprehensive studies of American involvement in the war to date. According to Kahin and Lewis, American policy was based on a distorted view of Vietnam. "Vietnam is a single nation, not two," Kahin and Lewis argued, and "South Vietnam constitutes an artificial creation whose existence depends on the sustained application of American power."^[2]

When U.S. SenatorGeorge McGovern campaigned in the1972 presidential election on a platform to end the war, Kahin became his foreign policy adviser.^[4]

In early 1975, Kahin gave testimony to the US Senate Subcommittee on Foreign Assistance and Economic Policy. In his opening, he said:^[13]

Mr Chairman, my own research makes very clear that responsibility for the outbreak of the tragic civil war in Cambodia lies with the very architects of foreign policy in the executive branch who now argue that the international prestige and credibility of the United States are inextricably tied to its insuring the survival of the present government in Phnom Penh through international or nongovernmental channels.

In Cambodia, US officials assert that US credibility and national honor are at stake. If this is so it is imperative to distinguish between credibility for relief of human suffering as against credibility for a dogmatic perpetuation of past error. Let us also not fail to distinguish between the credibility and honor of the principal architects of our cambodian policy – the CIA, the Pentagon, and Henry Kissinger – and that of the United States as nation.

In his foreword to Gareth Porter's bookCambodia: Starvation and Revolution, Kahin argued that Khmer Rouge policies "were not, then, applications of some irrational ideology, but reflected pragmatic solutions by leaders who had to rely exclusively on Cambodia's own food resources and who lacked facilities for its internal transport."^[14]

After Kahin was expelled from Indonesia in 1949, he helped young Indonesian diplomatsSumitro Djojohadikusumo,Soedarpo Sastrosatomo, andSoedjatmoko during their work at theUnited Nations and inWashington, D.C. He also developed a close relationship withSukarno andMohammad Hatta, the first President and Vice President of Indonesia. In his bookSubversion as Foreign Policy (Kahin & Kahin 1995), he attempted to clear former Prime MinisterMohammad Natsir, with whom he also developed a personal relationship, of any involvement with arebellion movement against the Indonesian government.^[4] The book also described a "destructive relationship" between the United States and Indonesia during Sukarno's presidency.^[5]

Kahin helped develop Indonesian studies in the United States at a time when the majority of material on Indonesia was held atLeiden University in theNetherlands. At Cornell, he introduced apostgraduate education program for diplomats from around the world who were in the middle of their careers. He also helped many Indonesian intellectuals, includingDeliar Noer and sociologistSelo Soemardjan, obtain education in the United States. Several of Kahin's students and associates, includingHerbert Feith, went on to establish similar programs at the universities where they subsequently taught.^[4]

At one point, the United States blocked Kahin's passport, and theSuharto government in Indonesia also denied him a visa.^[5] In 1991, Indonesian foreign ministerAli Alatas awarded Kahin theBintang Jasa Pratama (English:Medal of Merit, First Class) for his work as a "pioneer and precursor of Indonesian studies in the U.S."^[3]

Kahin married Margaret Baker in 1942. They later divorced .^[2]

Kahin died atStrong Memorial Hospital inRochester, New York, on January 29, 2000.^[3] Several months after his death, a memorial service was held inIthaca, New York, for him and to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the end of theVietnam War.^[11] A memoir which he never completed was brought to publication by his wife Audrey Richey Kahin (Kahin 2003). Kahin is also survived by his son Brian, daughter Sharon, sister Peggy Kahin Webb, and two grandchildren.^[2]

Kahin was a major influence on the foreign policy thinking ofSandy Berger,United States National Security Advisor under PresidentBill Clinton.^[12] He is the namesake ofCornell University's George McT. Kahin Center for Advanced Research on Southeast Asia, dedicated in his honor in 1992.^[3]

• Kahin, George McT. (2003).Southeast Asia: A testament. Critical Asian Scholarship. London: RoutledgeCurzon.ISBN 978-0-415-29976-3.

• Kahin, George McTurnan (1946).The Political Position of the Chinese in Indonesia.OCLC 12578741.
• Kahin, George McTurnan (1952) [1951].Nationalism and Revolution in Indonesia. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.OCLC 406170.
• Hinton, Harold C.;Ike, Nobutaka; Palmer, Norman D.; Callard, Keith; Wheeler, Richard S. (1963) [1958]. Kahin, George McT. (ed.).Major Governments of Asia (2nd ed.). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.OCLC 326028.
• Wilson, David A.; Silverstein, Josef;Feith, Herbert; Parmer, J. Norman; Klein, Wells C.; Weiner, Marjorie; Wurfel, David (1964) [1959]. Kahin, George McTurnan (ed.).Governments and Politics of Southeast Asia (2nd ed.). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.OCLC 501777.
• Kahin, George McT.; Kahin, Audrey R. (1995).Subversion as Foreign Policy: The Secret Eisenhower and Dulles Debacle in Indonesia. New York: The New Press.ISBN 978-1-56584-244-1.

• Kahin, George McTurnan;Lewis, John Wilson (1969) [1967].The United States in Vietnam (2nd ed.). New York: Dial Press.OCLC 45035.
• Kahin, George McT. (1986).Intervention: How America Became Involved in Vietnam (1st ed.). New York: Knopf.ISBN 978-0-394-54367-3.

• Guide to the George McTurnan Kahin Papers, ca. 1951–1999, at Cornell University Library
• George McT. Kahin Center for Advanced Research on Southeast Asia

• 1918 births
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• American anti–Vietnam War activists
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• Historians of Southeast Asia
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• 20th-century American historians
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• United States Army non-commissioned officers
• American male non-fiction writers
• 20th-century American political scientists
• Historians of Indonesia

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