United States relations with Indonesia, 1953--1961

This is a case study of the Eisenhower administration's approach toward Indonesia, a neutralist Third World country led by its charismatic President, Sukamo. Both President Eisenhower and his Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, were intimately involved in the details of Washington's policy on Indonesia. This work examines the converging conditions that shaped US policy and studies its implementation, often within the context of two triangular relationships--one involving the Netherlands, the United States and Indonesia, and the other the United States, Indonesia and the Soviet Union/People's Republic of China.; Based on extensive research in recently-declassified US documents, this work argues that the strategic imperatives of the Cold War shaped the Eisenhower administration's policy toward Indonesia. Faced with a country it considered important, but which was unwilling to align itself with the United States, Washington had to grope for appropriate means, and search for suitable and stable clients, in order to implement its policies. Its approach to Indonesia ran the gamut of choices: modest economic aid and military assistance, personal diplomacy, and a covert paramilitary operation orchestrated by the Central Intelligence Agency.