The American Spectator

The Indonesian PKI’s attempted coup occurred on September 30, 1965, not in 1966. Also, the “Year of Living Dangerously” was from August 17, 1964 to August 16, 1965, not 1966. That phrase came from then-President Sukarno’s Independence Day speech of August 17, 1964 and it was in reference to his projection of what the upcoming year would offer as his country was being courted by all sides. That year did, indeed, prove to be dangerous, though not as dangerous as the following year turned out to be.

Perhaps because of this 1966 is often mistakenly given that designation. The phrase later gained widespread acceptance after C. J. Koch used it as the title to a novel set in that locale and time frame. (The novel was later made into a movie starring Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver.)

As for what actually occurred in Indonesia during that tumultuous and horrific time, there are as many theories as there are theorists. Not surprisingly, the same crowd that describes the U.S. government’s involvement in Vietnam as inept accuses that same government of being deviously cunning in Indonesia. We will likely never know the extent of what transpired. However, this much we do know: in Indonesia communism was stopped dead in its tracks after coming within a hair’s breadth of gaining control of the whole country.

Indonesia was then the world’s fifth largest county; it is now the fourth largest. It is rich with natural resources and it is the gateway between the Indian and Pacific Oceans. I shudder to think what Southeast Asia would look like today had Indonesia fallen to communism.

Indonesia has its problems, to be sure, and it is far from being a bastion of freedom. However, within the past few weeks it held its first-ever direct election. I don’t think any of the countries behind the bamboo curtain can say the same.

While the Soviets and Red Chinese were fighting us in Vietnam, they lost their grasp on the sweetest Southeast Asian plum of them all.