The Jakarta Method<\/em> surveys \u201cUS-backed anticommunist extermination programs [that] carried out mass murder in at least 22 countries.\u201d Bevins reports on killings in Iraq, Iran, Sudan, and especially in Latin America, beginning with Guatemala in 1954. There, a regime imposed by a CIA-imposed coup murdered at least 2000 suspected Communists.<\/p>\nBrazil\u2019s propensity to rabid anticommunism set the stage for a military coup in 1964. The U.S. government was on the scene already. The military dictatorship replacing President Jo\u00e3o Goulart lasted until 1985. Brazil \u201cwould soon play a crucial role in flipping other countries into the Western camp,\u201d according to Bevins.<\/p>\n
The Brazil coup provided a blueprint for the coming disaster in Indonesia. The catastrophes in both countries were models for mass killings that would follow. U. S. involvement was a factor in all of them, although the various assaults gained plenty of inspiration and resources from local sources. Leftist insurgencies active in a few of the countries served as pretexts.<\/p>\n
With U.S. help, military dictatorships taking power in Argentina (1976) and Chile (1973) launched the regional killing-machine Operation Condor. Some 75,000 people were murdered in El Salvador. Guatemala\u2019s CIA-assisted military killed 200,000 mostly indigenous people between1978 and 1983. The book offers specifics on U.S. involvement in Chile, Nicaragua, and Brazil, but not in other Latin American countries.<\/p>\n
In many places, to whisper \u201cJakarta\u201d or scrawl the word on public surfaces served as a warning, reports Bevins. Setting the tone, El Salvador\u2019s General Roberto D\u2019Aubuisson declared, \u201cYou can be a Communist \u2026 even if you don\u2019t personally believe you are a Communist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Close relationships between U.S. military officers and counterparts in Indonesia and Latin America furthered U. S. military interventions. The U.S. Army\u2019s School of the Americas promoted such interpersonal ties, according to the protest group School of the Americas Watch. The training provided many Indonesian military officers at the Leavenworth, Kansas Army base undoubtedly enhanced their trust too in U.S. military personnel at work in their own country.<\/p>\n
Bevins notes that Indonesia \u201clikely fell off the proverbial map because of the events of 1965-1966.\u201d Indeed, \u201cfaraway countries that are stable and reliably pro-American do not make headlines.\u201d Colombia, another country notable for humanitarian disaster, a brutal civil war, and U.S. intervention likewise receives little U. S. media attention.<\/p>\n
Journalist Bevins served long stints in Brazil and Indonesia. Developing personal connections with survivors of the various blood-baths, he tracked them down throughout the world. What he learned contributes to the authenticity and immediacy of his story. His fact-filled narrative flows on the strength of clear language and commentary along the way.<\/p>\n
Bevins declares that \u201cthe creation of a monstrous international network of extermination \u2026 played a fundamental role in building the world we all live in today \u2026[V]iolent anticommunism still exists in Brazil, Indonesia and many other countries. The Cold War created a world of regimes that see any social reform as a threat.\u201d<\/p>\n
He sheds new light on the nature of the Cold War. For Bevins, \u201cWhat happened in Brazil in 1964 and Indonesia in 1965 may have been the most important victories of the Cold War for the side that ultimately won.\u201d He points out that his \u201cstory of the Cold War [isn\u2019t] focused primarily on white people in the United States and Europe,\u201d or in the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Method<\/em> surveys a string of separate armed conflicts inspired by anticommunism. They took place within different countries. Armed agents of the top layers of each of these societies were attacking fellow citizens who were, or thought to be, seeking justice and empowerment. In essence, the book deals with class conflict in these countries.<\/p>\nThe author\u2019s agenda wasn\u2019t about a Cold War fought with words and posturing between some nations governed by Communist parties and others that were powerful and anticommunist. That Cold War ended with the fall of the Soviet Bloc of nations in 1991. The other one, not really a cold war, is quiescent now, but it continues.<\/p>\n\n
This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A selection of propaganda leaflets blaming the Indonesian Communist Party for the 30 September (1965) movement that appeared in late 1965. Photograph Source: Davidelit \u2013 CC BY 3.0\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":287,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,266,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/287"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4684"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4685,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4684\/revisions\/4685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}