Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.-Indonesian Relations, 1960-1968 [Hardcover]

Bradley Simpson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 28, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0804756341 | ISBN-13: 978-0804756341

Offering the first comprehensive history of U.S relations with Indonesia during the 1960s, Economists with Guns explores one of the central dynamics of international politics during the Cold War: the emergence and U.S. embrace of authoritarian regimes pledged to programs of military-led development. Drawing on newly declassified archival material, Simpson examines how Americans and Indonesians imagined the country's development in the 1950s and why they abandoned their democratic hopes in the 1960s in favor of Suharto's military regime. Far from viewing development as a path to democracy, this book highlights the evolving commitment of Americans and Indonesians to authoritarianism in the 1960s on.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[A] disturbing and illuminating book." —The Nation

"Simpson's book constitutes an important addition to our knowledge of the global Cold War. It is based on meticulous archival research, frames its detailed finding within a larger argument and is written in a direct and accessible prose style. This text will be of interest to scholars and students of U.S. foreign policy, the international Cold War, and the modern history of Southeast Asia and Indonesia."—Edward Aspinall, American Historical Review.

"Based upon a remarkable wealth of recently declassified U.S. government documents, this meticulous study permits both new insights into well-known events and revelations of unknown events. A major contribution to the study of Indonesia's postcolonial history and to the field of U.S. Cold War diplomacy, it will remain a standard reference work for many years to come." —John Roosa, University of British Columbia

"The author successfully applies the ideas of modernization theory to the Indonesian case, tracing America's ideologically informed notions of Indonesia's place in the regional and world economy. This comprehensive work offers a valuable new perspective." —Matthew Jones, University of Nottingham

"Bradley R. Simpson's outstanding new book, Economists with Guns, provides chilling new evidence of American complicity with what the CIA itself referred to as 'the worst mass killings' since the era of Hitler and Stalin Simpson's book is highly significant in one other respect: it shows the perils of authoritarian models of economic development and the fallaciousness of the military modernization theories promoted by Kennedy-era intellectuals, which continue to hold some credence among foreign policy elites today." —History News Network

About the Author

Bradley R. Simpson is Assistant Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is also the director of a National Security Archive project to declassify U.S. documents concerning Indonesia and East Timor during the reign of General Suharto (1965-1998).

Product Details

• Hardcover: 376 pages
• Publisher: Stanford University Press (March 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0804756341
• ISBN-13: 978-0804756341
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,451,627 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.0 out of 5 stars Follow the Money, January 30, 2012

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This review is from: Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.-Indonesian Relations, 1960-1968 (Paperback)

"Economists with Guns" (great title!) is an excellent reconstruction of U.S. policy toward Indonesia under the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, with a focus on U.S. development aid and military assistance. Indonesia was a key battleground of the Cold War -- with 100 million people, vast natural riches, a powerful Communist Pary, and an erratic nationalist President, it was courted by the U.S., the Soviet Union, and China alike. So much was at stake that Washington wooed Indonesia to the point of alienating NATO allies the Netherlands and the United Kingdom, which were locked in late-colonial confrontations with Indonesia in West New Guinea and Malaysia.

The book shows how the U.S. tried to use foreign aid to build up Indonesian anti-Communist groups and to link Indonesia to global markets and U.S.-supported security alliances. I took off one star mainly because the analysis, based largely on declassified U.S. documents, is too Washington-centric. Indonesian players have walk-on roles when they appear in U.S. memos and cables, but they don't star in the show. Unfortunately, presenting the story through a U.S. lens could mislead careless readers into thinking that Washington was pulling the strings in Jakarta. In reality, the U.S. embassy was often behind the curve and had little influence on local events, which unfolded according to their own logic. This situation only changed in 1966/67, when national bankruptcy forced the new military government to seek help from donors such as the U.S., Japan, and the IMF.

The book's DC-centric bias is most egregious in the retelling of the Indonesian Army's massacre of Communists in 1965/66. As the book makes clear, the U.S. cheered on and extended limited covert support to the killers. Our behavior was disgraceful. But if one reads between the lines, it's also clear that the purges caught the U.S. by surprise and were organized by Indonesian generals for purely Indonesian reasons. The bloodbath would have happened whether or not the CIA was involved. Placing evil U.S. behavior at the center of an historical narrative is aesthetically satisfying but it doesn't necessarily capture the real forces driving events.