More than twenty years ago, historian Robert McMahon pointed out that studies of U.S.-Southeast Asian relations with a “broad, regional focus” remain “surprisingly rare.”1¹ His observation came in the bibliographic essay accompanying his own contribution to this sparse field, and his book remains one of precious few examples. As Kenton Clymer demonstrates in the opening essay in this Roundtable, it remains the case that few scholars study U.S. relations with countries in Southeast Asia other than Vietnam and the Philippines. The U.S. war in Vietnam, and the immediate and lingering effects of U.S. imperialism in the Philippines rightly attract significant attention. Scholars have produced compelling and sophisticated works about these topics, and continue to do so. However, contributors to this Roundtable demonstrate that the region as a whole, as well as individual countries and topics within it, deserve more study.

中文翻译：

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重新思考地区：20世纪的美国与东南亚关系

二十余年前，历史学家罗伯特·麦克马洪指出，以“广泛的，区域重点的”美国-东南亚关系的研究仍“令人惊讶的罕见。” 1 ¹他的观察结果发表在书目论文中，伴随着他对这个稀疏领域的贡献，而他的书仍然是少数几个珍贵的例子之一。正如肯顿·克莱默（Kenton Clymer）在本次圆桌会议的开篇文章中所表明的那样，仍然存在着这样的情况：除了越南和菲律宾以外，很少有学者研究美国与东南亚国家的关系。美国在越南的战争以及美帝国主义在菲律宾的直接而持久的影响理所当然地引起了人们的极大关注。学者们已经针对这些主题制作了引人入胜的精美作品，并将继续这样做。但是，本次圆桌会议的参与者表明，整个区域以及该区域内的各个国家和主题都值得更多研究。