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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The Cold War in the City of Heroes: U.S.-Indonesian Relations and Anti-Communist Operations in Surabaya, 1963-1965 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in History by Dahlia Gratia Setiyawan 2014 © Copyright by Dahlia Gratia Setiyawan 2014 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Cold War in the City of Heroes: U.S.-Indonesian Relations and Anti-Communist Operations in Surabaya, 1963-1965 by Dahlia Gratia Setiyawan Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Los Angeles, 2014 Professor Geoffrey Robinson, Chair Within a decade of its 1945 declaration of independence from Dutch colonial rule, Indonesia emerged at the vanguard of the global Non-Aligned Movement. Leveraging Western Bloc as well as Sino-Soviet interest in the new nation, Indonesia’s president, Sukarno, simultaneously secured economic aid and other support from both sides while maintaining a precarious domestic balance of power between the right-wing of the Army and the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI). However, by the early 1960s, as Sukarno began to take a more aggressive anti-imperialist posture toward the West, power began to shift in favor of the PKI and its radical nationalist allies. Indonesia’s Cold War “slide toward communism,” long a troubling prospect to the United States, thus became a critical and urgent focus of U.S. foreign policy. ii Indonesia’s second largest city, Surabaya, was one of the strongest bases of support for both Sukarno and the PKI and a hub of overt and covert U.S. anti-communist operations. However, scholars have long overlooked its role as a critical site of the Cold War in Southeast Asia. As U.S.-Indonesian relations deteriorated and street-level anti-Americanism escalated, U.S. officials in Surabaya, forged alliances with local anti-communist collaborators and ramped up operations aimed at overthrowing Sukarno and destroying the PKI. Although it seemed at first that their efforts might not succeed, a failed ‘PKI coup attempt’ on 1 October 1965 provided the justification for both of these objectives to be conclusively achieved. The campaign of mass violence that subsequently took place conclusively changed Indonesia’s political direction and paved the way for improved U.S.-Indonesian relations. This dissertation reveals new details about the 1965-66 purge of the Left in Surabaya and about the bilateral relations and political conflict that preceded it. Examining these topics from the lens of microhistory suggests that this method offers an equally valuable way to approach the broader study of U.S. foreign policy, political violence, and the Cold War itself. iii The dissertation of Dahlia Gratia Setiyawan is approved. George Dutton Kelly Lytle Hernandez Valerie Matsumoto Geoffrey Robinson, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2014 iv To my family. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... ix VITA ............................................................................................................................... xiv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES ............................................................................ xvi A NOTE ON SPELLING AND TRANSLATION ..................................................... xvii GLOSSARY ................................................................................................................. xviii MAP OF INDONESIA ............................................................................................... xxiii MAP OF GREATER SURABAYA ........................................................................... xxiv INTRODUCTION: TOWARD A NEW HISTORY OF COLD WAR-ERA U.S.- INDONESIAN RELATIONS .......................................................................................... 1 DE-CENTERING THE COLD WAR IN INDONESIA ................................................................ 7 THE UNITED STATES AND THE 1965-66 MASS VIOLENCE IN INDONESIA ........................ 15 METHODOLOGY AND SOURCES ....................................................................................... 18 SCOPE OF THE STUDY ..................................................................................................... 21 CHAPTER ONE. THE “FREEZE” IS ON: THE UNITED STATES, INDONESIA, AND THE COLD WAR IN SOUTHEAST ASIA, 1945-1965 ............................................. 24 “ASIAN DOMINOES” AND OTHER COLD WAR GAMES ........................................................ 27 U.S.-INDONESIAN RELATIONS UNDER KENNEDY AND JOHNSON ........................................ 46 THE NATIONAL CONTEXT .................................................................................................. 58 THE COLD WAR COMES TO SURABAYA ............................................................................. 69 CHAPTER TWO. “YANKEE GO TO HELL!”: ANTI-AMERICANISM SURGES IN SURABAYA ................................................................................................................... 84 GLOBAL AND LOCAL CONTEXTS OF ANTI-AMERICANISM IN SURABAYA ....................... 86 ANTI-AMERICANISM ASCENDANT .................................................................................. 91 THE MOVEMENT EXPANDS ........................................................................................... 101 “OPEN WAR!” .............................................................................................................. 126 CHAPTER THREE. “AN EXTREMELY USEFUL LISTENING POST”: U.S. ANTI- COMMUNIST OPERATIONS IN SURABAYA, 1963-1965 ................................... 133 EYES AND EARS ............................................................................................................ 136 “AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION” ...................................................................................... 151 FRIENDS AND FOES ....................................................................................................... 158 THE CONSULATE BATTENS DOWN THE HATCHES ......................................................... 181 vii CHAPTER FOUR. THE PURGE IN THE CITY OF HEROES ............................. 187 THE SEPTEMBER 30TH MOVEMENT AND THE 1965-66 MASS VIOLENCE ....................... 189 SURABAYA REACTS ...................................................................................................... 202 THE PURGE ................................................................................................................... 209 U.S. CULPABILITY ........................................................................................................ 236 CONCLUSION: RIDING THE COLD WAR WAVES ASHORE .......................... 256 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 263 viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project has benefited greatly from the support of an exceptional chair and committee. Geoffrey Robinson has been the best advisor that any student could ever wish for. His knowledge as an historian and as a human rights advocate have integrally shaped my approach to the study of Southeast Asia. His keen insights and valuable critiques as a scholar have pushed me to be a better historian of Indonesia. His accessibility, kindness, and integrity have served as a model of the type of mentor I hope to become. I am deeply grateful for the tremendously helpful guidance that he has provided in the drafting of this dissertation. My dissertation has also benefitted from the valuable suggestions and commentary of Valerie Matsumoto. I truly appreciate the time she has invested in reading and commenting on my chapter drafts and other writing and the support and guidance she has offered me throughout my graduate career. Kelly Lytle Hernandez has supported this project from the beginning and has encouraged me to see its potential in reaching a wider audience. George Dutton has provided much thorough feedback on my chapter drafts and a great degree of encouragement along the way. I owe this tremendous committee so much for everything they have done to make this dissertation an accessible, engaging, and historically sound piece of writing. Any remaining shortcomings, errors, and omissions are mine alone. I owe a debt of gratitude to the many individuals and institutions that were instrumental in helping me during my fieldwork in Indonesia and the United States. Firstly, I am grateful to the American Indonesian Exchange Foundation (AMINEF) for facilitating my research in Indonesia. I especially wish to thank all of the people who shared their time, experiences, and memories as participants of this study. I am very appreciative of the access I was granted to the ix Perpustakaan Medayu Agung, and the invaluable assistance I received from its founder Oei Hiem Hwie and his staff. I thank the Sekolah Tinggi Manajemen Informatika dan Teknika Komputer (STIKOM) Library for granting me access to their collection of back issues of the Surabaja Post. My thanks go as well to the Surabaya Municipal Archive for many of the images and documents that appear throughout this dissertation and the East Java Provincial Archives for access to their collections of documents. The National Archives and Records Administration in College Park, Maryland granted access to the declassified U.S. government documents that I employ in this study. U.S. Department of State historian Mark T. Hove also generously offered me his time and assistance.

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