Abstract
Sukarno’s days were numbered: from the Western perspective he was not a ‘sound’ leader, and would have to go. Throughout the 1950s efforts had been made to get rid of him — in favour of a more pliable leader who could be intimidated or bribed into sympathy with Western interests. The exigencies of the Cold War demanded no less. It was essential, judged Washington, that Indonesia be brought in line with the strategic agenda of ‘rollback’, whereby all the social and political gains of the Left — and even of Sukamo-style neutrality — could be crushed in favour of free-market exploitation and enforced subservience to US hegemony. It was an ambitious American scheme. Indonesia had so far resisted all the Western pressures: the US-encouraged coups and rebellions, the endless propaganda. Soon, through a terrible ocean of blood, Indonesia would be brought on board at last.
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Notes
These developments are considered in (for example) Harold Crouch, The Army and Politics in Indonesia (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993), pp. 97–134; ‘Suharto’s role in the 1965 coup’, Tapol, Bulletin No. 149/150 (December 1998), pp. 20–1;
Peter Dale Scott, ‘The United States and the over-throw of Sukarno, 1965–67’, Lobster, Hull, United Kingdom, No. 20 (November 1990), pp. 2–12.
CIA Memorandum, 18 June 1962, Declassified Documents Reference System, Arlington, Virginia, 1975 Volume, Document 240A.
Roger Hilsman, To Move a Nation (New York, 1967), p. 377.
Quoted in William Blum, The CIA: A Forgotten History (London: Zed Books, 1991), p. 220; see Blum’s note (22) for comment with sources (p. 385).
John Gittings, ‘The black hole of Bali’, Weekend Guardian, London, 8–9 September 1990, p. 6.
See, for example, Peter Dale Scott, ‘Exporting military-economic development’, in Malcolm Caldwell (ed.), Ten Years’ Military Terror in Indonesia (Nottingham: Spokesman Books, 1975), pp. 227–32.
John H. Johnson, The Role of the Military in Underdeveloped Countries (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962), pp. 222–4. (Klaus Knorr, once a CIA employee, wrote the foreword.)
Ulf Sundhaussen, The Road to Power: Indonesian Military Politics, 1945–1967 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), p. 141.
Howard Palfry Jones, Indonesia: The Possible Dream (New York: Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich, 1971), p. 324; cited in Scott (1990), op. cit., p. 7.
John Quigley, The Ruses for War: American Interventionism since World War II (Buffalo, New York: Prometheus Books, 1992), p. 79.
Kathy Kaldane, ‘After 25 years, Americans speak of their role in exterminating Communist Party’, San Francisco Examiner, 20 May 1990.
San Francisco Examiner, 20 May 1990. See also David Hay, ‘CIA linked to massacre of Indonesian communists’, Sunday Age, Melbourne, 1 July 1990;
Michael Wines, ‘CIA tie asserted in Indonesia purge’, The New York Times, 12 July 1990.
Ibid.; see also Paul Lashmar and James Oliver, ‘Britain plotted to depose Sukarno’, The Independent, London, 1 December 1998; Paul Lashmar and James Oliver, Britain’s Secret Propaganda War 1948–77, Sutton, 7 December 1998.
James Reston, New York Times, 19 June 1966, IV, p. 4.
Ralph McGehee, ‘The CIA and the White Paper on El Salvador’, Nation, 11 April 1981, p. 423; Roger Morris and Richard Mauzy, ‘Following the Scenario’, in Robert L. Borosage and John Marks (eds), The CIA File (New York: Grossman/Viking, 1976), p. 39; cited in Scott (1990), op. cit., p. 9.
Blum, op. cit., p. 221; cites Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman, The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism (Boston, 1979), pp. 129–204.
M. C. Ricklefs, A History of Modern Indonesia since c. 1300 (London: Macmillan, 1991), p. 298.
Quoted in Walter Isaacson, Kissinger: A Biography (London: Faber and Faber, 1992), pp. 680–1.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, A Dangerous Place (Bombay: Allied Publishers Private Ltd, 1979), p. 247.
John Pilger, ‘A Land of Crosses’, in Jim Aubrey (ed.), Free East Timor (New South Wales, Australia: Vintage, 1998), pp. 153–76.
John Aglionby, ‘Police block Jakarta march’, The Guardian, London, 21 June 1996.
John Pilger, ‘Faint voice of freedom cries in a cruel land’, The Observer, London, 28 July 1996.
Richard Lloyd Parry, ‘General fears “latent danger” of communism’, The Independent, London, 1 August 1996.
Matt Frei, ‘Suharto’s girl steps into father’s shoes’, The Sunday Telegraph, London, 18 May 1997.
Michael Richardson, ‘US commander sounds alert on Indonesia unrest’, International Herald Tribune, 7 January 1998.
Bambang Triantoro, National Brotherhood Foundation, quoted in John Aglionby, ‘Crisis turns Indonesia against ailing Suharto’, The Guardian, London, 8 January 1998.
Nick Cumming-Bruce, ‘Autocrat who has outstayed his usefulness’, The Guardian, London, 9 January 1998.
Nick Cumming-Bruce and John Aglionby, ‘Cracks sunder the House of Suharto’, The Observer, London, 11 January 1998.
Philip Sherwell and Matt Frei, ‘Asia’s crony capitalism collapses’, Sunday Telegraph, London, 11 January 1998.
Michael Sheridan and David Smith, ‘Asian plague’, The Sunday Times, London, 11 January 1998.
Richard Lloyd Parry, ‘Nervous Indonesians in search of a sign’, Independent on Sunday, London, 25 January 1998.
Matt Frei, ‘Sinking tiger clings to the fattest cat of them all’, The Sunday Telegraph, London, 1 March 1998.
Andrew Higgins and Mark Tran, ‘US pulls plug on Suharto after army clears streets’, The Guardian, London, 21 May 1998;
Alex Spillius, ‘MPs give Suharto 48-hour ultimatum’, The Daily Telegraph, London, 21 May 1998.
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© 2000 Geoff Simons
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Simons, G. (2000). The Suharto Years. In: Indonesia: The Long Oppression. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780333982846_5
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