Parts one and two of an interview with George McT. Kahin, Aaron L. Binenkorb Professor of International Studies, Emeritus. Professor Kahin was the Cornell Southeast Asia Program’s second faculty director, serving from 1960-1970. In part one, he recounts his experience in graduate school at Johns Hopkins and in Indonesia during the Indonesian National Revolution, as well as his early days in the Cornell Southeast Asia Program under the cloud of McCarthyism. In part two, Professor Kahin recounts his time as SEAP director, as well as his establishment of the Cornell Modern Indonesia Project (CMIP) starting in 1954 with the help of a generous grant from the Ford Foundation. He also outlines his experience studying and teaching Southeast Asian in the political climate of the 1960’s and 70’s, as well as his involvement in the national debate over the Vietnam War.

The interview was conducted by Coeli Barry and Peter Zinoman. Coeli Barry is now the chair of the MA International Program at the Mahidol University Institute for Human Rights and Peace Studies, and Peter Zinoman is a Professor of History at the University of California, Berkeley.