Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Files reveal US had detailed knowledge of Indonesia's anti-communist purge
Source: Associated Press
Files reveal US had detailed knowledge of Indonesia's anti-communist purge
Associated Press in Jakarta
Tuesday 17 October 2017 18.30 BST
Declassified files have revealed new details of US government knowledge of and support for an Indonesian army extermination campaign that killed several hundred thousand civilians during anti-communist hysteria in the mid-1960s.
The thousands of files from the US embassy in Jakarta covering 1963-66 were made public on Tuesday after a declassification review that began under the Obama administration.
The files fill out the picture of a devastating reign of terror by the Indonesian army and Muslim groups that has been sketched by historians and in a US state department volume that was declassified in 2001 despite a last-minute CIA effort to block its distribution.
In 1965, Indonesia had the world’s third-largest communist party after China and the Soviet Union, with several million members, and the country’s president, the charismatic Sukarno, was vociferously socialist and anti-American.
US officials were ecstatic when conservative generals imposed martial law in Jakarta, ...
-snip-
Associated Press in Jakarta
Tuesday 17 October 2017 18.30 BST
Declassified files have revealed new details of US government knowledge of and support for an Indonesian army extermination campaign that killed several hundred thousand civilians during anti-communist hysteria in the mid-1960s.
The thousands of files from the US embassy in Jakarta covering 1963-66 were made public on Tuesday after a declassification review that began under the Obama administration.
The files fill out the picture of a devastating reign of terror by the Indonesian army and Muslim groups that has been sketched by historians and in a US state department volume that was declassified in 2001 despite a last-minute CIA effort to block its distribution.
In 1965, Indonesia had the world’s third-largest communist party after China and the Soviet Union, with several million members, and the country’s president, the charismatic Sukarno, was vociferously socialist and anti-American.
US officials were ecstatic when conservative generals imposed martial law in Jakarta, ...
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/17/indonesia-anti-communist-killings-us-declassified-files
