Posted on 01/27/2008 3:11:35 PM PST by NormsRevenge
This was the setting for “The Year of Living Dangerously,” starring Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver.
Soeharto came to power when the country was in a mess, partly because of the communists influence during the time of his predecessor, Soekarno. Unlike Polpot or Hitler, I don’t think Soeharto mastermind all the killing of the communists in 1960s, although for sure he didn’t prevent it from happening.
And how many MORE would have died if Indonesia was under communist control? Those numbers pale with the 1/3 of the total population of Cambodia that was killed under Pol Pot's communist regime or under Stalin's iron control...
Curious as to how the article shows the muslims and communists in a good light but the CIA as bad.
In a way, the actions against the communists in Indoneasia mirrors what went on in Chile and several other nations and the US’s reaction to it. While massacering innocent unarmed civilians is inherrently wrong, there was a Cold War going on. If the communists in these countries had been unimpeded, they probably would have ensured equal if not worse tragedies to say nothing of the end result of the Cold War.
I’ve been asking myself a question since reading this article...
What is so horribly wrong with that was done? There is no peaceful coexistence with communists. They make the fight a true either/or.
The only real options available when confronted with an implacable enemy is to kill them or submit to them. Jailing them doesn’t do squat. You’ve got to release them sometime, and even if jailed for the rest of their lives, they end up as indoctrinators of their fellow inmates and inspiration to those still unjailed.
What other options are there when opposed by an openly hostile ideology that demands your culture’s obliteration and replacement?
The biggest problem here is that Suharto didn’t do these things to defend liberty and democracy.
All his people suffered while he prospered
ET? AP does not mention it because the US didn’t care. Duh.
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB62/#24
On 4 or 5 December, while still in Beijing, Kissinger received a cable from the State Department suggesting that the Indonesians had “plans” to invade East Timor.(25) Thus, Ford or Kissinger could not have been too surprised when, in the middle of a discussion of guerrilla movements in Thailand and Malaysia, Suharto suddenly brought up East Timor. Suharto noted that while Indonesia “has no territorial ambitions,” Fretilin has not cooperated with negotiations and has “declared its independence unilaterally.” The current situation, he said, “will prolong the suffering of the refugees and increase instability in the area.” Suharto then assured the Americans that “the four other parties” favor integration, with the apparent implication that a mere majority among the “parties” to the conflict—absent a popular referendum—alone constituted an act of self-determination. “We want your understanding,” Suharto continued, “if we deem it necessary to take rapid or drastic action.”
Ford and Kissinger took great pains to assure Suharto that they would not oppose the invasion. Ford was unambiguous: “We will understand and will not press you on the issue. We understand the problem and the intentions you have.” Kissinger did indeed stress that “the use of US-made arms could create problems,” but then added that, “It depends on how we construe it; whether it is in self defense or is a foreign operation.” Thus, Kissinger’s concern was not about whether U.S. arms would be used offensively—and hence illegally—but whether the act would actually be interpreted as such—a process he clearly intended to manipulate.(26) In any case, Kissinger added: “It is important that whatever you do succeeds quickly.”
Indeed, timing and damage control were very important to the Americans, as Kissinger told Suharto: “We would be able to influence the reaction in America if whatever happens happens after we return. . . If you have made plans, we will do our best to keep everyone quiet until the President returns home.” Kissinger also asked Suharto if he anticipated a “long guerilla war,” apparently aware that a quick military success would be easier to spin than a long campaign. Suharto acknowledged that there “will probably be a small guerilla war” but he was cagey enough not to predict its duration. Nevertheless, his military colleagues were optimistic; as one of the architects of Indonesian policy, General Ali Murtopo explained to a U.S. scholar some months before the invasion, “the whole business will be settled in three weeks.”(27)
“It just calls them East Timorese. The AP never told us that when the Muslims were killing the Catholics. And, they don’t tell us now.”
Sorry I don’t buy that. Everyone knows that Islam is the Religion of Peace.
/sarc
I am not defending Suharto’s human rights record but I AM questioning the bias of the article. Just about every communist government killed a large amount of their citizens to maintain control. In fact, I don’t think I ever heard of ANY communist government that respected human rights... Have you?
Nope.
I just dont want to call this guy as a saint.
In light of what the communists have done in other lands, Suharto made a choice - them or us. He did what he had to do. Trying to accommodate the communists would never have worked.
The nature of the Communist war led ultimately to the "dirty wars" of South America and the Indonesian iteration of the war was the same but at Asian levels of mechanical savagery. In a less than modern country the communists had to be rooted out totally or they would prevail and slaughter their own enemies and perceived enemies.
The Indonesian events of 1968 were a significant reason that the Dominoes of 1975 did not fall beyond Indochina. It does not surprise me that the CIA might have been involved. America was the principle stronghold of resistance to Communism and the one country seriously opposing the Soviets.
It began as a purge of Communists and turned into an ethnic cleansing of Overseas Chinese. The Communists were mostly Chinese. Sukarno had used the Communists to hold power and would have ultimately lost Indonesia to them if he had continued to rule. Indonesia in 1968 was very much part of the Viet Nam War.
It is probably pretty accurate but from the viewpoint of the Communists-as-victims. It went down the way things go down in Asia. Methods and outlook have not changed much since Attila. The Human Wave attack in Korea were the Huns or the Mongols with rifles.
That’s true. In 1968, Indonesia’s population was over a hundred million. A Pol Pot or Ho Chi Minh-style ‘remaking’ of the society would have cost-at an absolute minimum-ten times the figure of one million that is frequently cited.
And that figure, to me, is very suspect. Remember how for years the figure of 15,000 dead was given for Pinochet’s takeover? Only after his regime left power was the true figure available-around 3,300 for his entire 16 years of rule. Most were killed in the first three weeks, and many were hardly the starry-eyed idealists portrayed by the left. Chile’s army fought pitched battles against marxist militias in the streets of Santiago.
Hopefully, a full airing will one day be given for Indonesia’s dark year.
We called it a Cold War but it was quite hot in many places. In reporting it things were all compartmentalized and it was made to appear as different local actions, but it was all the same war, from Argentina to Ethiopia to Indonesia and Vietnam.
Indonesia as a whole propspered under Soeharto, especially when you compared it with Soekarno's period. Yes, he and his family prospered more than others.
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