Concise Summary

 

This article examines how US Cold War efforts to contain communism by supporting "Free Chinese" education outside mainland China intersected with Singapore’s nation-building, using Nanyang University (Nantah) as the key case. After self-government in 1959, Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew secretly secured backing from the CIA-linked Asia Foundation for graduate scholarships, originally meant to align overseas Chinese students away from the PRC. Singapore’s government gradually redirected this initiative to serve its own developmental needs, leading to the formal recognition of American degrees in 1967 and establishing the enduring pattern of Singaporean elites pursuing education in the United States.