RFK, Indonesia and THE JAKARTA METHOD

[Anthony Thorne]

Greg Poulgrain's book JFK VS ALLEN DULLES: BATTLEGROUND INDONESIA is out in the next couple of weeks (apparently), as a Kindle version. So it's interesting to see that another book, just published, looks like a complimentary volume to it. Vincent Bevin's THE JAKARTA METHOD: WASHINGTON'S ANTICOMMUNIST CRUSADE AND THE MASS MURDER PROGRAM THAT SHAPED OUR WORLD picks up the story from 1964. RFK gets a mention in this new article - apparently an excerpt from Bevin's book - as one of the few politicians concerned about what was going on down there.

 

HOW JAKARTA BECAME THE CODEWORD FOR US-BACKED MASS KILLING

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/05/18/how-jakarta-became-the-codeword-for-us-backed-mass-killing/?fbclid=IwAR3makWQATympqw42G0doYVx3UF0a9sqpTZnem1dTJelJM-RqHXTjZhHyr4

And this line in Bevin's piece is diverting.

 

Quote

Maybe RFK had a kind of conversion about the nature of black ops after his brother’s death. 

 

Official page for Bevin's book, with reviews and links Amazon and elsewhere.

https://www.publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/vincent-bevins/the-jakarta-method/9781541724013/?fbclid=IwAR0Js24SwGuToFofIo-EhX9M7UdCehcWU6S2pWqK4axurbueUWs0IRnV8x0

Edited May 21, 2020 by Anthony Thorne

[James DiEugenio]

Glad you posted this.  According to Bevins, Bobby was the only politician in Washington who protested the Indonesia slaughter.

I don't understand how Bevins could have missed the fact that if was RFK in 1962 who went against Netherlands and backed Sukarno in the dispute over West Irian. Sukarno was so grateful for that that he invited JFK to Jakarta in 1964.  And Kennedy accepted.  At the time of JFK's assassination,  Sukarno was building an estate for Kennedy to stay in. When he heard the news, Sukarno went to an American journalist, and asked her, "Why did they kill my friend John Kennedy?" (Notice the plural) 

That is why RFK was the only one to protest.

 

Edited May 21, 2020 by James DiEugenio

[Robert Montenegro]

1 hour ago, Anthony Thorne said:

Greg Poulgrain's book JFK VS ALLEN DULLES: BATTLEGROUND INDONESIA is out in the next couple of weeks (apparently), as a Kindle version.

Well, that's the second time every single hard copy of one of Greg Poulgrain's books goes out of print in less than 24 hours. 

Not even the English department head at the college I attend can find a physical copy of "The Incubus of Intervention: Conflicting Indonesia Strategies of John F. Kennedy and Allen Dulles" for me.

Who do I gotta be a patsy for to finally be able to read one of his books?!

What a bummer...

Well, to quote Duane Ramsdell "Dewey" Clarridge of "Iran-Contra" infamy, "...there's never been a conspiracy in this country..."

 

Prime Minister Castro and President Sukarno in Havana, Cuba, 1960. Both targets of the Central Intelligence Agency's wrath...

Edited May 21, 2020 by Robert Montenegro

[David Andrews]

Thanks for this, Anthony.  Cold War Indonesia is a travesty of humanity in itself, and an important precursor to our 1970s-1980s ruination of Central America, authored by some of the same people, who also conceived of treating America as a "banana republic."  It's a continuum that reaches from before the JFKA to 9/11, as you well know.

On the same NYRB page as the Bevins book excerpt, links to further articles on Indonesia:

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2017/10/20/uncovering-indonesias-act-of-killing/

https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2015/11/02/indonesian-massacre-what-did-us-know/

 

Edited May 23, 2020 by David Andrews

[W. Niederhut]

I tried to buy a copy of Poulgrain's Incubus of Intervention 2 or 3 years ago, after the subject of JFK, Sukarno, and Indonesia came up here.

Couldn't find a copy for sale.  Very strange.

Thanks for posting this new info, Anthony.