Categories:

• Earth and the Environment
  • Atmosphere and Weather
  • Biographies
  • Ecology and Environmentalism
  • Geography
  • Geology and Oceanography
  • Minerals, Mining, and Metallurgy
• History
  • Ancient Greece and Rome
  • Asia and Africa
  • Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific
  • Biographies
  • Historians and Chronicles
  • Latin America and the Caribbean
  • Modern Europe
  • United States and Canada
• Literature and the Arts
  • Art and Architecture
  • Biographies
  • Classical Literature, Mythology, and Folklore
  • Fashion, Design, and Crafts
  • Journalism and Publishing
  • Language, Linguistics, and Literary Terms
  • Literature in English
  • Literature in Other Modern Languages
  • Performing Arts
  • Scholars and Historians
• Medicine
  • Anatomy and Physiology
  • Biographies
  • Diseases and Conditions
  • Divisions, Diagnostics, and Procedures
  • Drugs
  • Psychology
• People
  • History
  • Literature and the Arts
  • Medicine
  • Philosophy and Religion
  • Science and Technology
  • Social Sciences and the Law
  • Sports and Games
• Philosophy and Religion
  • Ancient Religions
  • Biographies
  • Christianity
  • Eastern Religions
  • Islam
  • Judaism
  • Other Religious Beliefs and General Terms
  • Philosophy
  • The Bible
• Places
  • Africa
  • Asia
  • Australia and Oceania
  • Britain, Ireland, France, and the Low Countries
  • Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltic Nations
  • Germany, Scandinavia, and Central Europe
  • Latin America and the Caribbean
  • Oceans, Continents, and Polar Regions
  • Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and the Balkans
  • United States and Canada
• Plants and Animals
  • Agriculture and Horticulture
  • Animals
  • Biographies
  • Botany
  • Microbes, Algae, and Fungi
  • Plants
  • Zoology and Veterinary Medicine
• Science and Technology
  • Astronomy and Space Exploration
  • Biochemistry
  • Biographies
  • Biology and Genetics
  • Chemistry
  • Computers and Electrical Engineering
  • Mathematics
  • Physics
  • Technology
• Social Sciences and the Law
  • Anthropology and Archaeology
  • Biographies
  • Economics, Business, and Labor
  • Education
  • Law
  • Political Science and Government
  • Sociology and Social Reform
• Sports and Everyday Life
  • Biographies
  • Crafts and Household Items
  • Days and Holidays
  • Fashion and Clothing
  • Food and Drink
  • Games
  • Manners and Customs
  • Social Organizations
  • Sports

Documents for "Southeast Asia History: Biographies":

• Abdul Rahman, Tunku see Rahman, Tunku Abdul.

• Abdul Razak see Razak, Abdul.

• Abdullah Ahmad Badawi 1939-, Malaysian government official and politician. A graduate of the Univ. of Malaya (B.A. 1964) and the son of a prominent politician, he held a series of civil service posts, including deputy...

• Alaungpaya 1711-60, Burmese king, founder of the Konbaung dynasty, which ruled until 1885. His name, also given as Alompra, means "the coming Buddha." The son of a village headman, he rallied the Burmese and led them against their Mons rulers. He seized the important town of Ava in 1753 and moved south, uniting upper and lower Myanmar under his...

• Alompra see Alaungpaya.

• Aung San Suu Kyi 1945-, Burmese political leader. The daughter of assassinated (1947) nationalist general U Aung San, who is regarded as the founder of modern Myanmar, she lived outside the country after 1960...

• Bao Dai 1913-97, emperor of Annam (1926-45) and chief of state of Vietnam (1949-55). Born Prince Nguyen Vinh Thuy, he was the son of Emperor Khai Din and succeeded to the throne in 1926, but did not...

• Bhumibol Adulyadej 1927-, king of Thailand (1946-), b. Cambridge, Mass. A member of the Chakri dynasty, he was at school in Switzerland when his brother, King Ananda Mahidol, died (1946) under mysterious...

• Brooke, Sir Charles Anthony Johnson see Brooke, Sir James.

• Brooke, Sir Charles Vyner see Brooke, Sir James.

• Brooke, Sir James 1803-68, rajah of Sarawak on Borneo, b. India, of English parents. After active service in Burma (1825-26), he retired (1830) from the army of the East India Company. He sailed (1838) for Borneo,...

• Chulalongkorn or Rama V , 1853-1910, king of Siam (1868-1910). Educated in part by a British governess, Anna Leonowens, and an English tutor, he greatly advanced the Westernization of Siam (present-day Thailand) begun by...

• Diem, Ngo Dinh 1901-63, president of South Vietnam (1955-63). A member of an influential Roman Catholic family, he was a civil servant before World War II and was connected with the nationalists during the war...

• Dong, Pham Van 1906-2000, prime minister of the Democratic Republic of (North) Vietnam (1954-76) and of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (1976-87). Scion of a prominent Mandarin family, he joined the activist...

• Duan, Le see Le Duan.

• Duong Van Minh see Minh, Duong Van.

• Giap, Vo Nguyen 1911-, soldier and government official of North Vietnam and later of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. A nationalist, he joined the Vietnamese Communist party in the 1930s, later joining Ho Chi Minh in China. Giap helped to organize the Viet Minh forces, fighting to oust the Japanese in World War II and the French after the war; he became commander of the Viet Minh in 1946. A master of guerrilla warfare, he was credited with the defeat of...

• Goh Chok Tong 1941-, prime minister of Singapore (1990-2004). After holding government and business positions, he was elected to Singapore's parliament in 1976 and served in the cabinet and People's Action party leadership from 1979. In 1985 he...

• Gus Dur see Wahid, Abdurrahman.

• Hatta, Mohammad 1902-80, Indonesian political leader. He was born on Sumatra into an aristocratic family. Interested in economics, he went to the Netherlands to study. There he joined the Indonesian independence...

• Heng Samrin 1934-, Cambodian politician. He was president of Cambodia from 1979 to 1991 and headed the Communist party from 1981 to 1991. A regimental commander of the Khmer Rouge during the civil war (1970-75), he sought refuge in Vietnam from Pol Pot's purges (1977). Returning to lead the uprising, he was named president of the Vietnamese-installed Cambodian government...

• Ho Chi Minh 1890-1969, Vietnamese nationalist leader, president of North Vietnam (1954-69), and one of the most influential political leaders of the 20th cent. His given name was Nguyen That Thanh. In 1911 he...

• Hun Sen 1952-, Cambodian political leader, premier of Cambodia (1985-93, 1998-; second premier, 1993-98). A member of the Khmer Rouge from 1970, he fled to Vietnam with Heng Samrin and other Communists in 1977. When the Vietnamese army invaded Cambodia, Hun Sen returned, becoming foreign minister (1979-85) in Heng Samrin's Vietnamese-backed, anti-Khmer Rouge, Communist...

• Kittikachorn, Thanom see Thanom Kittikachorn.

• Ky, Nguyen Cao 1930-, premier (1965-67) and vice president (1967-71) of the former Republic of South Vietnam. Flight trained by the French, he returned to Vietnam (1954) and held a series of commands in the...

• Le Duan 1908-86, Vietnamese Communist party leader. Imprisoned by the French colonial regime, he organized Communist forces in the South after the French withdrawal from Vietnam in 1954 and became first...

• Lee Hsien Loong 1952-, prime minister of Singapore (2004-). The eldest son of Lee Kuan Yew , Singapore's first prime minister, Lee was educated at Cambridge and Harvard while also serving (beginning in 1974) in Singapore's armed forces. Retiring as a brigadier general in 1984, he was...

• Lee Kuan Yew 1923-, prime minister of Singapore (1959-90). Educated in England as a lawyer, he founded (1954) the moderately leftist People's Action party. In 1959 he became Singapore's first prime minister; in 1963 he led Singapore into the...

• Linh, Nguyen Van 1915-98, Vietnamese political leader, b. near Hanoi as Nguyen Van Cuc. As a young man he was active in organizing Vietnam's Communist party and was twice jailed (1931-36; 1941-45) for his...

• Lon Nol 1913-85, Cambodian general and political leader. He became defense minister and army chief of staff in 1955 in Norodom Sihanouk 's government. He served as premier (1966-67) under Sihanouk. In 1970, he led the coup that deposed Sihanouk, and assumed control of the government. He attempted unsuccessfully to suppress the...

• Mahathir bin Mohamad 1925-, Malaysian political leader. A doctor by training, he first entered parliament in 1964 and rose in the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), but lost his seat and was expelled from...

• Malik, Adam 1917-84, Indonesian government official. A militant nationalist as a youth, he helped to found a news bureau that eventually became the official Indonesian news agency, and after World War II he...

• Megawati Sukarnoputri 1947-, Indonesian political leader, president of Indonesia (2001-4). The daughter of former president Sukarno , she is seen by many as her father's political heir. Megawati entered politics in 1987 as a candidate of the Indonesian Democratic party (PDI) and served in parliament for 10 years. She was elected...

• Minh, Duong Van 1916-2001, Vietnamese army officer and political leader. A military adviser (1962-63) to President Diem , he helped to overthrow Diem in 1963. He was head of government (1963-64), after which he went into exile. Minh returned in 1968, serving as an opposition leader against President Thieu. A presidential candidate in 1971, Minh withdrew, charging election rigging. He returned briefly as president in 1975, in an unsuccessful conciliation effort but was placed in detention after the...

• Mongkut or Rama IV , 1804-68, king of Siam, now Thailand (1851-68). A devout Buddhist monk, he was displaced in succession to the throne by his brother, who ascended as Rama III. Mongkut became king as Rama IV in...

• Ne Win, U 1911-2002, Burmese soldier and political leader. He abandoned his original name, Shu Maung, in 1941 when he joined a Japanese-supported nationalist military group. Becoming commander of the...

• Ngo Dinh Diem see Diem, Ngo Dinh.

• Nguyen Cao Ky see Ky, Nguyen Cao.

• Nguyen Van Thieu see Thieu, Nguyen Van.

• Nol, Lon see Lon Nol.

• Norodom Sihamoni see Sihamoni, Norodom.

• Norodom Sihanouk see Sihanouk, Norodom.

• Nu, U 1907-95, Burmese political leader, prime minister of Burma (1948-56, 1957-58, 1960-62). A nationalist, he was expelled by the British authorities from the Univ. of Rangoon law school in 1936 for...

• Parakrama Bahu I fl. 12th cent., Sinhalese king of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka; 1153-86). He was the first to unite the island under one rule after Chola invaders were driven out in the late 11th cent. He made his...

• Pham Van Dong see Dong, Pham Van.

• Phumiphon see Bhumibol Adulyadej.

• Pol Pot 1925-98, Cambodian political leader, originally named Saloth Sar. Paris-educated, and a Khmer Communist leader from 1960, he led Khmer Rouge guerrillas against the government of Lon Nol after 1970. In 1975 he proclaimed the Democratic Republic of Kampuchea and served as its premier (1976-79). The systematic murder of members of various groups; the complete destruction of...

• Prajadhipok or Rama VII , 1893-1941, king of Siam (1925-35). He was educated in England and France. He succeeded his brother Rama VI, and in 1932 a coup forced him to grant a constitution, which allowed for national...

• Raffles, Sir Thomas Stamford Bingley 1781-1826, British East Indian administrator. He was one of the founders of Britain's empire in East Asia. Beginning his career (1795) as a clerk in the British East India Company, he was sent to...

• Rahman, Tunku Abdul 1903-90, Malaysian political leader. A prince, he was the fifth son of Sultan Abdul Halim Shah of Kedah and was educated in England at Cambridge. Rahman entered the Kedah state civil service in...

• Rama IV see Mongkut.

• Rama IX see Bhumibol Adulyadej.

• Rama V see Chulalongkorn.

• Rama VII see Prajadhipok.

• Razak, Abdul 1922-76, prime minister of Malaysia (1970-76). Elected to the national legislature in 1959, he was deputy prime minister and minister of defense from 1959 to 1970. In 1970, he became prime...

• Sailendra name of a dynasty in Indonesia and SE Asia. The dynasty appeared in central Java in the 7th cent. and had consolidated its position by the mid-8th cent. The Sailendras, who adopted Buddhism,...

• Sihamoni, Norodom 1953-, king of Cambodia (2004-). A son of King Norodom Sihanouk and his fifth wife, Norodom Sihamoni was trained as a dancer and taught dance (1981-2000) in Paris, choreographed, and directed his own dance company. In 1993 he became Cambodia's ambassador to...

• Sihanouk, Norodom 1922-, king of Cambodia (1941-55, 1993-2004). Sihanouk was educated in Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) and Paris and was elected king by a royal council in 1941. During World War II he was held a...

• Soeharto see Suharto.

• Souphanouvong, Prince 1909-95, Laotian government official; half brother of Prince Souvanna Phouma. Although a member of Laos's royal family, he was an active nationalist and fought the French as a member of the pro-Communist Pathet Lao. After Laos gained independence, he joined (1958) a coalition cabinet. Arrested after rightists took power in 1959, he escaped in 1960 to lead the Pathet Lao forces in opposition. He was a Pathet...

• Souvanna Phouma, Prince 1901-84, government official of Laos. Of royal descent, he was trained as an engineer. From 1950 he held a variety of key government posts, including the premiership (1951-54, 1956-58, and 1960)...

• Suharto or Soeharto , 1921-, president of Indonesia (1967-98). A veteran of the war for independence (1945-49) against the Dutch, he became army chief of staff in 1965. He opposed the pro-Chinese policies of President Sukarno and, while still relatively unknown, crushed a Communist coup in 1965 and then moved to replace Sukarno. Suharto assumed key civilian cabinet offices in 1966, became acting president in 1967, and...

• Sukarno 1901-70, Indonesian statesman, first president of Indonesia. A leader of the radical nationalist movement founded in 1927, he was jailed and exiled by the Dutch at various times in the 1930s...

• Thaksin Shinawatra 1949-, Thai business executive and political leader, b. Chiang Mai. Born into a wealth merchant family, he went into the Thai police service in 1973 and continued his criminal-justice education in...

• Thanom Kittikachorn 1911-2004, Thai political and military leader. He entered the army in 1929, rising to command of a division by 1950. After supporting a coup in 1957 by Sarit Thanarat, he served (1957-63) as...

• Thieu, Nguyen Van 1924-2001, president of the former Republic of South Vietnam (1967-75). After World War II, he joined the Viet Minh , but then left it to join what became the South Vietnamese National Army (ARVN). He rose rapidly, becoming a division commander. In 1963, he helped lead the coup overthrowing President Diem. Together with Nguyen Cao Ky , Thieu was a leading force in a succession of South Vietnamese governments from 1963 to 1967. He was elected president in 1967 and retained office in a rigged election in 1971. Thieu was reluctant...

• Ton Duc Thang 1888-1980, Vietnamese politician. He was an early supporter of Ho Chi Minh and was imprisoned (1929-45) by the French colonial regime. After Vietnamese independence, he rose quickly in the North Vietnamese Communist party. He was vice president (1960-69) and became...

• Vo Nguyen Giap see Giap, Vo Nguyen.

• Wahid, Abdurrahman 1940-, Indonesian religious and political leader popularly called Gus Dur, president of Indonesia (1999-2001). A Muslim scholar and political moderate who supports separation of religion and state...

• Yudhoyono, Susilo Bambang 1949-, Indonesian army officer and political leader, popularly known as SBY, president of Indonesia (2004-), b. Pacitan, Java. A military officer who was trained both in Indonesia and the United...