7 notable US-backed regime changes since WWII
3. Sukarno (Indonesia) — 1965
Kusno Sosrodihardjo, a longtime Indonesian nationalist who went by the name Sukarno, was elected president of Indonesia shortly after it gained independence in 1949.
In the 1960s, Sukarno intended to remain president indefinitely and made efforts to increase his ties to China, prompting growing concerns among Western powers.
A failed communist coup in 1965 greatly weakened Sukarno and gave rise to anti-communist General Mohamed Suharto, who successfully seized power in 1966 and put Sukarno under house arrest.
Suharto’s consolidation of power, which included the massacre of hundreds of thousands of Communist Party members within Indonesia, received the backing of the U.S. government.
“American officials carefully tracked the 1965-66 killings, for which the U.S. provided the Indonesian military with money, equipment and lists of communist officials during the height of the Cold War,” explained the National Security Archive of George Washington University.
“One declassified embassy report from 1967, when Suharto was firmly ensconced as a leader, states that the U.S. had a ‘heavy stake in the outcome’ of the authoritarian regime’s success. Anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International has called Suharto, who embezzled more than $30 billion from Indonesia during his lifetime, one of the most corrupt leaders in modern history.”
