Die Jakarta-Methode

In 1965, the USA supported the Indonesian military in the murder of approximately one million civilians. With a coup against the anti-colonial Sukarno government, the aim was to steer the non-aligned Indonesia towards a pro-Western course and eliminate the largest communist party outside of China and the Soviet Union. Award-winning journalist Vincent Bevins recalls a mass murder program that was deliberately replicated in other parts of the world, such as Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. He draws on his reports as a long-term correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post in Brazil and Southeast Asia, and relies on declassified documents, archival material, and eyewitness accounts from twelve countries to demonstrate that large parts of the Global South did not transition peacefully into the US-led camp. Rather, this narrative persisted precisely because the CIA-supported interventions were so successful. With its brutal violence, the Jakarta Method was a crucial asset during the Cold War that continues to shape the world today. An afterword by the translator addressing West Germany's shared responsibility concludes the volume.