The Communist Collapse in Indonesia

The Communist-oriented putsch developed on the night of September 30, 1965, when the Indonesian Communist Party—the oldest in Asia—had attained the zenith of its power and influence as the biggest Communist movement in the world after China and Russia. When Sukarno, the Communists, and a group of “progressive, revolutionary officer” struck, the Anglo-American allies were standing back to back on the rim of the South China Sea. In Vietnam, to the north, the Americans and their Asian allies were trying to hold the tide; in Malaysia, to the south, the British and their Pacific allies were trying to contain Sukarno. Both sought to blunt the Jakarta-Peking axis.