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The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World

The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World

by Vincent Bevins

PublicAffairs ·2020 ·320 pages
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About This Book

The hidden story of the wanton slaughter -- in Indonesia, Latin America, and around the world -- backed by the United States. In 1965, the U.S. government helped the Indonesian military kill approximately one million innocent civilians. This was one of the most important turning points of the twentieth century, eliminating the largest communist party outside China and the Soviet Union and inspiring copycat terror programs in faraway countries like Brazil and Chile. But these events remain widely overlooked, precisely because the CIA's secret interventions were so successful. In this bold and comprehensive new history, Vincent Bevins builds on his incisive reporting for the Washington Post, using recently declassified documents, archival research and eye-witness testimony collected across twelve countries to reveal a shocking legacy that spans the globe. For decades, it's been believed that parts of the developing world passed peacefully into the U.S.-led capitalist system. The Jakarta Method demonstrates that the brutal extermination of unarmed leftists was a fundamental part of Washington's final triumph in the Cold War.


Reviews

"Bevins is not the first to note that the Cold War frequently burned hot in the Third World, but he excels at showing the human costs of that epic ideological struggle."

Andre Pagliarini· The New Republic Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"By focusing on these narratives, he makes the complex transnational dynamics of the Cold War both easier to comprehend and more grounded in human stakes ..."

Leo Schwartz· Los Angeles Review of Books Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"His answer is simple: 'You killed us.'"

Jacob Sugarman· Jacobin Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

"Bevins is convinced that most Americans today are aware of this particularly bloody era of U.S."

Kirkus Read review ↗ Top of the Pile

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