I think you have to be a bit cautious about statistical growth rates in East Asia, because you can have a high growth rate, on a small starting point that overall is not indicative.
There is no denying that East Asian growth was the capitalist success story of the period 1960-95. But that disguises a great deal. Of Indonesia's hundred millions the majority are still working the land, and generating precious little income. Malaysia's growth too is restricted to the urban areas, and has not achieved Korea's transformation of the population into an urban working class. Singapore's success first as a port serving its Indonesian and Malaysian hinterland, and, latterly, as a base for Western investment is limited by the island's size and population (two million). South Korea is the one unalloyed success, itself, as Doug noted, engendered by the long-running US policy of military-Keynesianism in the region.
But East Asia has indeed struggled against Western imperialism to achieve its success. The US plainly provoked a military conflict in Korea in 1954 that divided the country, and has done ever since to keep its forces in the region. Seoul's modest attempts first to liberalise its polity and secondly to re-unite the country were frustrated by US machinations.
To stymie Indonesian nationalism the US sponsored one of the most grotesque military coups in the post-war period, leading to one million deaths, and the entrenchment of a reactionary regime. And on top of that US leaders supported the sordid Marcos dictatorship for decades. And then there is Britain's war against the Malay insurgency, France and the US's protracted war in Indo-china and the continued occupation of colonies in Hong Kong and Macao.
If Asia today is asserting itself, let's bear in mind that the West bombed and blasted away at every expression of Asian independence, wherever it raised its head. Asian success is in defiance of Western imperialism, not because of it. So, yes, I guess you could say US strategy has failed.
On Wed, 10 Apr 2002, Bradford DeLong wrote:
> Now, the development of South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia,
> Indonesia, Hong Kong, and Singapore since 1960 has been the fastest
> in the world, ever. So that if U.S. policy was to stop "development"
> in the region, U.S. policy was a catastrophic failure. But I suppose
> development wasn't, in some sense, "independent"--that these
> countries are still clients of the United States out of which
> "surplus" is being pumped at a furious rate.
>
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