Read on Twitter
With the apparent coup in Burma/Myanmar in the news, here's a quick thread on the historiography of the modern U.S.-Burmese relationship.
Kenton Clymer's sweeping history of bilateral ties up to the Obama era, published in 2015, is mandatory reading. Clymer also wrote a similarly extensive study of U.S.-Cambodian ties. https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801454486/a-delicate-relationship/
Another strong title is Matthew Foley's study of Anglo-American relations with Burma in the early Cold War period, running up to the 1962 coup. https://www.routledge.com/The-Cold-War-and-National-Assertion-in-Southeast-Asia-Britain-the-United/Foley/p/book/9780415627498
Robert J. McMahon's "The Limits of Empire," while a study of post-WW2 U.S. policy toward Southeast Asia, helpfully fits Washington's Burma policy into a regional context. http://cup.columbia.edu/book/the-limits-of-empire/9780231108805
And Daniel Weiner's "Seeing Drugs" boasts a strong chapter on U.S. counternarcotics policy in Burma during the 1970s (alongside chapters on Thailand and Mexico)
https://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/2011/seeing-drugs/
https://www.kentstateuniversitypress.com/2011/seeing-drugs/
