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CASE #VM3NU0 · 2 entities · 1 connections
The Jakarta Method
The U.S. helped a foreign military kill up to a million of its own citizens in 1965 — then declassified cables show American officials later cited it as a model for operations elsewhere.
In 1965-66, the Indonesian military, with documented U.S. support, killed an estimated 500,000 to one million people accused of communist sympathies. Declassified U.S. embassy cables confirm American officials provided target lists and later referenced the operation's effectiveness in planning similar anti-communist campaigns elsewhere, a pattern journalist Vincent Bevins termed "the Jakarta Method."
✓documented
Quick facts
- →Estimates of the death toll range from 500,000 to over one million people killed between 1965 and 1966.
- →In 2017, the U.S. National Security Archive published 39 declassified State Department cables documenting American officials' awareness of and involvement in the killings.
- →Declassified cables show the U.S. Embassy provided lists of suspected communists to the Indonesian military.
- →Journalist Vincent Bevins argues in his 2020 book that the operation's perceived success led U.S. officials to reference it as a model for later anti-communist campaigns in Brazil, Chile, and elsewhere.
Entities on file
Indonesian killings of 1965-66 (event)
Mass killing of suspected communists in Indonesia with documented U.S. support; later referenced as a model in other countries.
No outgoing connections on file.
Suharto (person)
Indonesian general who led the anti-communist military campaign and later ruled Indonesia for 31 years.
→ led the military campaign behind → Indonesian killings of 1965-66✓documented