Subversion as Foreign Policy: The Secret Eisenhower and Dulles Debacle in Indonesia (Hardcover)

by Audrey R. Kahin (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
In 1957, President Eisenhower, his secretary of state, John Foster Dulles, and the CIA--unbeknownst to Congress or to the American public--launched a massive covert military operation in Indonesia. Its aims were to topple or weaken Indonesia's populist President Sukarno, viewed as too friendly toward Indonesia's Communist Party, and to cripple the Indonesian army. The CIA, run by Allen Dulles, the brother of the secretary of state, funneled financial support and weapons to rebel colonels on the islands outside Java, seat of the government. In the ensuing civil war, thousands of civilians were killed; the Indonesian army put down the rebellion and crushed noncommunist political parties; Sukarno's centralized regime became more authoritarian and jettisoned parliamentary government. Historian Audrey Kahin, editor of the journal Indonesia, and Cornell professor of international studies George Kahin have written a disturbing, scholarly expose of a major covert operation that paved the way for the Indonesian army's massacre of half a million people in 1965-66 with Washington's support. The authors maintain that Indonesia's communist party was essentially a homegrown nationalist movement and that the Eisenhower administration's fears were misguided.

Copyright 1995 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 332 pages
• Publisher: New Press (May 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1565842448
• ISBN-13: 978-1565842441
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.2 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.com Sales Rank: #1,651,016 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a green light to Suharto's atrocities?, September 12, 2007

By	W Boudville (Terra, Sol 3) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Subversion As Foreign Policy: The Secret Eisenhower and Dulles Debacle in Indonesia (Paperback)

The book raises unsettling questions about possible American involvement in the rise to power of Suharto. It is well known that the Nixon administration aided Pinochet's coup against Allende in the 1970s, and turned a blind eye to the purges later committed by Pinoceht. But Suharto's accession and the anti-communist purges in Indonesia involved far more dead. Maybe half a million.

Thus far, those events have received little recognition inside or outside Indonesia for any American influence. The book delves into this. It furnishes details about Dulles' fear, apparently successfully conveyed to Eisenhower, that communists were on the verge of taking over Indonesia. Recall that this was in the depths of the Cold War. The "loss" of China to Mao's forces was still fresh. So too the baleful influence of Joseph McCarthy in Washington. Given this US worldview, the book's premise is rather plausible. That, to some extent, the US gave a green light to Suharto's atrocities.