Free Republic

In a nutshell: After Jerry's father, Pat, left the governorship in 1967, he was introduced to the Indonesian generals who had just overthrown the country's post-colonial dictator, Sukarno, and set up a military junta. The former governor was able to cobble together a consortium of banks that lent $12 billion to the junta - "a lot of money in the late '60s," Mr. Walters said. The banks were interested in the immense Royal Dutch Shell petroleum holdings in Indonesia, which Sukarno had nationalized and the junta controlled. The grateful generals then set up two trading firms - one in Hong...