By the early 1970s, the future seemed bright for Singapore. The economy was buoyant. Singapore's international profile was high. But all was not well beneath the surface. Dangers lurked in the form of foreign intervention and subversion, which were heightened by the intensifying power rivalry in the region. As foreign minister, Raja made it his job to look below the ripples on the surface and to identify, as far as he could, the ideological and geopolitical currents swirling around the island.

What he discerned was this: The tide of a communist armed struggle was sweeping across Southeast Asia, expanding from Vietnam to Laos and Cambodia as the British retreated from the region. There was a danger that their withdrawal, coupled with the Americans’ anticipated pull-out from Vietnam, would give a fillip to the communists’ efforts to subvert Singapore. Across the Causeway, Malaysia was already facing a resurgence of China-supported communist guerrilla activity.

As China and the Soviet Union expanded their influence in the region to fill the power vacuum, another danger loomed: that Singapore would find itself caught in big power rivalry in a world where the US, China and the Soviet Union regularly waged war through proxies.

This was illustrated dramatically in January 1971, when two Soviet warships conspicuously sailed through the Singapore Strait while Singapore was hosting the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. Raja, of course, was not the only one who took note. So did all the Commonwealth leaders in town. The Soviets said nothing. This only intensified speculation on their intentions, given that the Soviet threat to the Indian Ocean was hotly debated during the meeting.

Clearly, Singapore, whose position commanded the sea routes between the Indian and Pacific Oceans, had acquired a new strategic importance. As Raja observed, where previously the island was important only to the British, in the 1970s it would become important to “many more big and not-so-big nations”. He expected the geopolitical plot to take a different turn, but “if Singapore is to be in the play at all, it must get as shrewd an idea as it can as to what the drama is all about”.

Given Singapore's location, “it would be foolish of us to think that we are going to be left alone: that interested parties will not try to convert Singapore into their pawn in this deadly power game”, Raja told the public in May 1971.