The renaissance of Buddhism in Southeast Asia has coincided with the struggle for independence from the great Western powers by the small nations of that area. Opposition to communism within Buddhism has been a development of the past ten or fifteen years, but resistance to Western imperialistic domination is a matter of the past several centuries. The alliance of Buddhism with nationalistic patriotic forces resisting the French in Vietnam had its counterpart in similar alliances with nationalistic movements in other countries in Southeast Asia. The factor of nationalism in the small countries
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