Sukarno and the Indonesian Coup - (PSI Reports) by Helen-Louise Hunter (Hardcover)

About the Book

On September 30, 1965, six of Indonesia's highest ranking generals were killed in an effort by President Sukarno to crush an alleged coup. The events of that were part of a rapidly growing power struggle pro and anti-communist factions. The elimination of the generals, however, did little to increase and preserve Sukarno's power, though, and he was stripped of the presidency in 1967. Hunt's work is a unique and original examination of the events that culminated on that night in September, 1965. It is the first detailed account of the Indonesian Coup that reveals the previously unknown workings of the PKI's ultra-secret Special Bureau, a clandestine organization within the Communist Party that may be the prototype of other similar entities that flourished around the world in the mid-50's and 60s. No such expose of secret communist organizations committed to covert killings of the top military or political leaders of the country has ever been published. She establishes beyond any doubt that the PKI, under Chairman Aidit's direction, using the capabilities of a secret organization within the PKI that only Aidit and a handful of trusted high-level members of the Communist Party even knew about, and, most importantly, acting with President Sukarno's full knowledge and approval, planned and then-dramatically-failed to execute a bold plan to kill the top leadership of the Army and proclaim a new socialist state under President Sukarno's leadership with PKI Chairman Aidit as his proclaimed successor. At the time of the coup, government analysts as well as non-government scholars were of two minds. Some, like the group at Cornell University, were convinced that the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party) had not been involved, that the coup was the action mid-level army officers against the top leadership. That was the official line at the time. Others were convinced that the PKI alone had planned and executed the coup in its long-held desire to remove the pro-U.S. army leadership. No one at the time saw the hand of Indonesia's world-famous President Sukarno in the affair.

Book Synopsis

On September 30, 1965, six of Indonesia's highest ranking generals were killed in an effort by President Sukarno to crush an alleged coup. The events of that were part of a rapidly growing power struggle pro and anti-communist factions. The elimination of the generals, however, did little to increase and preserve Sukarno's power, though, and he was stripped of the presidency in 1967. Hunt's work is a unique and original examination of the events that culminated on that night in September, 1965. It is the first detailed account of the Indonesian Coup that reveals the previously unknown workings of the PKI's ultra-secret Special Bureau, a clandestine organization within the Communist Party that may be the prototype of other similar entities that flourished around the world in the mid-50's and 60s. No such expose of secret communist organizations committed to covert killings of the top military or political leaders of the country has ever been published. She establishes beyond any doubt that the PKI, under Chairman Aidit's direction, using the capabilities of a secret organization within the PKI that only Aidit and a handful of trusted high-level members of the Communist Party even knew about, and, most importantly, acting with President Sukarno's full knowledge and approval, planned and then-dramatically-failed to execute a bold plan to kill the top leadership of the Army and proclaim a new socialist state under President Sukarno's leadership with PKI Chairman Aidit as his proclaimed successor. At the time of the coup, government analysts as well as non-government scholars were of two minds. Some, like the group at Cornell University, were convinced that the PKI (Indonesian Communist Party) had not been involved, that the coup was the action mid-level army officers against the top leadership. That was the official line at the time. Others were convinced that the PKI alone had planned and executed the coup in its long-held desire to remove the pro-U.S. army leadership. No one at the time saw the hand of Indonesia's world-famous President Sukarno in the affair.

Review Quotes

"[I]t is a meritorious work and does shed some light on the events that began with the killing of Indonesia's six most senior military leaders in one night, precipitating a backlash that may have claimed a quarter of a million lives....Recommended. Graduate students and faculty." --Choice

"The coup referred to by Hunter (a political analyst at the Central Intelligence Agency for 23 years) in the title of her book is not the toppling of Indonesian president Sukarno and assumption of power by General Suharto, but instead the preceding failed attempt to establish a military junta by the 30th of September Movement in response to an alleged CIA-sponsored opposing coup conspiracy by the so-called Council of Generals. Hunter examines these events in reverse chronological order, attempting to establish that at the heart of the 30th of September Movement was a secret organization run by high-level members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) that planned, with President Sukarno's active cooperation, to institute a socialist state under Sukarno's leadership, later to be succeeded by PKI Chairman Aidit." --Reference & Research Book News

About the Author

Helen-Louise Hunter was a political analyst at the CIA for twenty-three years and served as the Assistant National Intelligence Officer for the Far East from 1979-81. She went on to earn her J.D. from Georgetown and was a clerk to two federal judges in the U.S. District Court for Maryland before joining the law firm of Jones Day in Washington, D.C. in 1989. She is the author of Kim Il-song's North Korea (1999) and co-author of North Korea, A Country Study (2006).