Southeast Asia in the seventies can scarcely avoid its measure of difficulties and troubles as the result of the mass of unsolved problems which confront even the most successful of the governments in the region. It seems proper to suggest that all the evidence which is currently available points towards an absence of cataclysms, but it leaves the strong possibility of recurring revolt. The long history of revolt in the region is insufficint basis for an expectation that instances of revolt will mark the future as they have marked the past. The continued existence of the factors which have led to past revolt is, however, a strong reason for believing that many years have still to pass before true stability can replace the transient calm which seems the best hope for the region in the near future.

– Extracted from Milton Osborne (1970), Region of Revolt: Focus on Southeast Asia, Ringwood: Penguin Books, p. 194. At the time, Milton Osborne was an Associate Professor of History at Monash University. A helpful list of some of his other publications is available here.