New Frontier v. Guided Democracy: Kennedy, Sukarno, and Indonesia

Abstract

Reflecting on his days in the Kennedy administration, Arthur Schlesinger, Jr wrote in A Thousand Days: John F. Kennedy in the White House that “Indonesia and Vietnam presented Kennedy with problems to which there were no clear or easy answers and which harassed him throughout his administration.”¹ Indeed, in terms of official visits, negotiations, length of cabinet discussions, and stacks of policy papers, Indonesia occupied more of the young President’s time than even Vietnam.² Although the issues and circumstances of Indonesia and Vietnam differed, the Kennedy administration attempted to place Southeast Asian affairs within general and hopeful policy goals for the entire Pacific region. At first glance, it was obvious that Indonesia was a stumbling-block to the Kennedy administration’s plans for American-Pacific nation harmony in the New Pacific Community. Many Indonesians supported the communists, while others supported a unique version of democracy. Some, regardless of their political stripes, welcomed an expansionist foreign policy that demonstrated Indonesian power in Pacific affairs as well as offered guidance to Southeast Asia in the politics of anti-Western imperialism.