Thanking those who helped make this book possible

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s founder and subject of this book, never once asked to review the manuscript, of course, but he did ask to look over all direct quotes for accuracy, content and style. I happily agreed, and sincerely appreciated his effort to improve accuracy and articulation, as well as his patient and precise responses to the emails over these past months, not to mention the exclusive hours on 27 and 28 July, 2009 at the Istana, and his interviews with me over the years.

Chris Newson, the forward-looking general manager and publisher of Marshall Cavendish, never stopped thinking about how to make a bit of history with this book; I liked that! Violet Phoon, former managing editor of Marshall Cavendish, and the late Theron Raines, of Raines & Raines, my career-long literary agent, were invaluable, absolutely essential, thoroughly professional, relentlessly demanding and mutually incomparable. My Lu, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy ’09, was the book’s senior researcher and contributed significantly to it in a number of ways, as she has to many of my efforts over the years. And Lee Mei Lin, senior editor of Marshall Cavendish, kept my feet to the flames of proper usage, grammar and taste; and I do indeed thank her.

David Armstrong, the well-known career journalist and chief editor at newspapers from Sydney to Hong Kong, read an early draft and made valuable suggestions. Professor Bin Wong, UCLA’s pre-eminent Chinese historian and Director of the UCLA Asia Institute, kindly read and commented on the original manuscript. His views were deeply thoughtful. Even so, neither he nor David Armstrong are responsible for its contents in any way, except to the extent that parts of it may be excellent.

Reading and improving earlier drafts were Nicole Riggs, a former UCLA student, former column-checker and graduate of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, my own alma mater; and Anya Zabolotnaya, a former UCLA course assistant, working actress (Anya Benton) and column-editor at the Pacific Perspectives Media Center. Finally, appreciation for wise input go to D. Katharine Lee of the Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC.