Economists with Guns: Authoritarian Development and U.S.-Indonesian Relations, 1960-1968 1st Edition

by Bradley R. Simpson (Author)

8 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0804756341

ISBN-10: 0804756341

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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.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"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

"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

"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

"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

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

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Stanford University Press; 1st edition (March 28, 2008)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 376 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0804756341
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0804756341
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.38 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.2 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #8,136,456 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #7,121 in Southeast Asia History
- #9,381 in Asian History (Books)
- #13,980 in International Relations (Books)

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Top reviews from the United States

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It's Time to give up on Beltway historians( the only kind left) of 1960-65:OvertakeLane!All Court Press.

Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2016

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Not nearly enough on divisions within the National Security State. The author relies far too much on the phrase "the Kennedy Administration." This phrase obfuscates the real story here: the "intra-administration war", to use the New York Times phrase re Vietnam policy, but which is perhaps even more applicable to Indonesian policy differences between JFK and CIA. Of course this division, a matter of historic record, is completely off-limits within employable academia that is Garrison State USA or 2016. Perhaps I should be more sympathetic. The writer needs a job, and in the beltway, no less!

There is some good stuff in the book. It's just too late to give safety historians the benefit of the doubt i.e. the third star. It's too late. The safety historians are killing us, i.e. preventing too many from realizing that we are on Autopilot, government by National Security State right now. And the 1961-63 period is exactly when the overtake of three branches, once and for all, took place. . Time to read a real Australian ! This book is amazing. Truthfully we should read both books, and also the recent book by Rehovic called Kennedy Johnson and the Non-Aligned World. But this book-by-a-real-Australian is what the world needs now. https://www.amazon.com/Incubus-Intervention-Conflicting-Indonesia-Strategies/dp/9670630509/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1481889626&sr=1-1-catcorr&keywords=Dulles+Kennedy+Indonesia The Incubus of Intervention: Conflicting Indonesia Strategies of John F. Kennedy and Allen Dulles

4 people found this helpful

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Maire Leadbeater

A breakthrough

Reviewed in the United States on April 26, 2016

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Authoritative, written in an accessible style. Founded in the most up to date research evidence for the period in question, it makes sense of this period of US involvement with post-colonial Indonesia. Reveals the extent of US complicity in the 1965 purge of alleged communists and communist sympathisers. It is a shocking but important book.

2 people found this helpful

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Sarah E Garcia

Three Stars

Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2018

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Not my favorite read, but it did raise interesting information.

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Brad Rockwell

Must-read for understanding recent Indonesian history.

Reviewed in the United States on July 3, 2014

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Excellent book that is indispensable to understanding one of the most horrific acts of genocide in the 20th Century.

One person found this helpful

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burung

the pretense of democracy, the change to a dictator

Reviewed in the United States on June 24, 2018

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Very interesting; very selective in the bad side of the Soeharto reign. I lived there during those years and found that Soeharto started out with good intentions, especially towards raising the life of the farmer, mainly in Java. His weakness towards his wife and his children in later years, plus a fatal submission to flattery over his decisions, were factors in his change from a guardian to a despot.

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not me

Follow the Money

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2012

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"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 heavily 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.

6 people found this helpful

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JamesGarfield'sBeard

An underlooked area in US foreign policy

Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2017

I read this book in my 20th Century U.S, foreign relations class. My professor was actually on one of reward committees for this book. In fact the author used my professors book as a source. The reason why I read it for my history class is because the U.S. was heavily involved in Indonesia in foreign policy in the 1960s. The U.S. supported authoritarian regimes in order to fight against communism. This book provides a specific example of that policy making. It also provides a horrific account of how the US and Britain supported the genocide of suspected communists for economic interests and to get rid of communism. If you do read this book I would recommend getting a map of Indonesia because it's hard to keep track of where the locations are since Indonesia is an archipelago.

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Otto Noordraven

Good book

Reviewed in the United States on August 9, 2019

Good book

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