Michael Furgiuele

HIST 673 – Fall 2005

Review of Shared Hopes, Separate Fears: Fifty Years of U.S.-Indonesian Relations by Paul Gardner

Mr. C. Vancil, Instructor

 

In his novel, Gardner provided an in-depth report of the impact of United States policies within the development of Indonesia from 1945 to 1995.  Gardner’s thesis targeted the role of the United States throughout the turbulent years of the 1950s as Indonesia struggled against multiple government leaders. His reviews continued the nation well into the 1970s when duplicity within foreign policies directed by the United States aggravated the search for stability in the region.  He followed with how the United States used Indonesia’s location and internal struggle as a weapon against Cold War policies.

 

Gardner provided advanced evidence in support of his thesis.  Throughout his work, he cited several key interviews, translations, and military documents to outline the complex relations between Indonesia and the United States.  In addition, Gardner opened his work to critical peer review prior to publication, offering prior Ambassadors, military officers, and several societies on U.S.-Indonesian relations to evaluate his translations and synopsis prior to publication.

 

Indonesia was once the colonial possession of the Netherlands since the 18^th century.  Like other colonial nations including India and African countries, Indonesia (Dutch East Indies) developed a nationalist intent prior to the start of World War I[1]. The continent supported the advancement of independence between World War I and II but the Dutch continued to repress the struggle for independence.  Like Germany, England and France, Indonesia fell into economic despair following World War I as “the value of her exports fell by almost a half between 1928 and 1931”[2] as wartime markets collapsed. Prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, “clandestine contact was established between some Japanese officers and Indonesian nationalists”[3] but was disrupted when Japanese interest in Indonesian oil weighed heavier than political issues within the country.  During World War II, the Netherlands fell under the control of Hitler’s Nazi Germany and Indonesia became a captured commonwealth and exploited by Imperial Japan, often inducing mass slavery and executions of Dutch colonists.  Japan’s need for oil provided the need for invasion in 1942 and held until the end of the war in 1945.

 

Immediately following World War II, Indonesia embraced American ideals and often “painted familiar legends: “Government of the People, by the people, for the people’ and ‘Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’”[4] throughout the cities and towns.  Like Indian and African colonies, Indonesia won its independence from colonial rule shortly after World War II[5] and the United Nations formally recognized the Republic in 1945 although realizing their independence took longer in practice than on paper.  Even as Japanese officials went to trial for crimes committed during the war, trial lawyers refused to identify denying captured lands of their “government of and by and for the people”. Further, “no American chief prosecutor was about to argue that these bloody aggressions constituted a crime against peace and humanity”[6] since the French and Dutch continued to involve themselves in Indonesian control.  This wavering commitment to Indonesia set the tone for relations to follow.

 

After the war, there were similarities between the United States and Indonesia, politically and economically, in post-war chaos.  The two countries formed a respectful unity and commenced in trade and policies.  However, Indonesian political stability took over 10 years to stabilize.  During this period, internal political struggles brought the United States into conflicts and rhetoric, which supported the necessity of Indonesia as a puppet of the United States and drew duplicity within the United States.  Military and government leaders in Washington often oversaw the development of policies without the support or knowledge of the military and foreign relations leaders in Indonesia, causing conflicts and chaos in adapting policies.

 

During the 1950s, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union pushed Washington to identify key elements in relations to insure that Indonesia would remain as a democratic nation despite growing regional tensions and communist expansion.  As China and North Korea fell into communist dominance, the United States issued policies aimed exclusively to maintain Indonesia free from insurgence and supported nationalist rebels against dominance of communist idealists. 

 

The most dominant leader of Indonesia, Sukarno, held a line between corruption and hailed nationalist leader, securing Indonesian interests in the political game with the United States.  Like Mao Zedong, whom “adjusted Marxist philosophy to certain realities in the Chinese situation”[7], formatted a new sense of communism based on Chinese needs rather than standard Marxist rhetoric of the Soviet Union, Sukarno identified Indonesian diversity to establish a guided democratic movement against wholesale democratic foundations supported by the United States.

 

Gardner identified the shifting political support for Indonesia from Truman through Clinton administrations and how each President issued orders to identify Indonesia as a prime example of democracy against communist policies in the region.  Gardner reinforced Presidential orders and personal feelings through in-depth analysis of correspondence between the Office of the President and various foreign relations offices, Ambassadors, and the economic leaders with strong interests in Indonesian oil production, which remained a chief component of their national trade project.

Paul Gardner provided a look at the development of the Indonesia from the chaos of World War II through current policies. He further illustrated with substantial evidence, how the United States often used varying political rhetoric in support of various factions within the country in order to secure a concrete hold on democracy in Southeast Asia and assisted in developing Indonesia as a model of freedom against communism and nationalist rivalries.