The US enthusiastically supported the 1965 military coup in Indonesia and the mass killings that followed. One key motivation was Washington’s desire to scupper a new international alliance that Indonesia’s leader, Sukarno, was in the process of building.

Recent scenes from Indonesia have gripped international headlines. Massive youth protests provoked by economic austerity and parliamentary privileges erupted across the country. Yet with rare exceptions such as these protests, the archipelago nation of nearly 300 million people tends to be a distant consideration, even for much of the international left.

This was not always the case. Half a century ago, Indonesia was central to global geopolitics. From internationalists enamored with the “Bandung Spirit” to Western agents bent on subver

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