126 CHAPTER THREE

RUMORS, PLOTS, AND CONSPIRACIES: THE RAMPARTS ARTICLE

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, “foreign educational activities – teacher training, Harris, Ford Representative in at intervention,” in the eyes of some, was a English-language education, public the time the training project was approved. specter threatening the developing world. administration and management, and He knew members of the economics faculty Advisors, consultants, and trainers were research and development – had been at Berkeley, including Thomas Blaidsell, who portrayed as “neo-imperialists” bent on initiated and conducted with the approval convinced the university of the merits of the ruling post-colonial societies through the of President . These activities, in project. In the meantime, Harris’s own close subtle and sophisticated means of financial fact, made up the bulk of Foundation funds friendship with , and technological assistance. committed to Indonesia. the man widely regarded as the father of the This period was highlighted by the Ransom focused on a team of Ford- “technocrats” and the instigator of the election of Soedjatmoko to the Ford financed, US-trained economists based at affiliation, was a matter of public record. Foundation’s Board of Trustees, which FEUI, whom he branded the “.” And Sumitro, in turn, had a personal quickly drew criticism from both left and After returning from their postgraduate connection with the then chairman of the right. In October 1970, Ramparts magazine Berkeley Department of Economics, Dr. published an essay by California-based Andreas Papandreou, a fellow socialist he writer David Ransom. He much admired. described Indonesia’s political Ransom’s emphasis on upheaval of 1965 and 1966 as Berkeley was odd, in light of being the product of a sinister Foundation-supported projects and elaborate American plot. The in Indonesia based at other culprits? Ford Foundation, Rand prestigious universities, including Corporation, USAID, the Council on MIT, Cornell, and the University of Foreign Relations, assorted American Wisconsin. The purpose of all of universities, and the CIA – he seemed these projects, said another former to be implicating the entire free world. Ford Representative, Frank Miller, The Ford Foundation’s real interest in was to “prepare teachers of Indonesia, according to him, was the economics, not public officials.” subversion of the government followed by In 1957, when Sumitro fled the coaching of Indonesian economists to to avoid arrest and later joined the PRRI produce a national development plan rebels in West Sumatra, the affiliation with Even today the Ramparts article still serves compatible with “the new indirect rule of as occasional fodder for conspiracy theorists. US universities stayed afloat despite America.” “severe difficulties.” Sources close to the Initially, the so-called exposé generated studies – at Berkeley and other universities event agreed, “Any association with him little press interest, either in the US or in – some were appointed to influential [Sumitro] was a serious liability.” Although Indonesia. It was the fiercely nationalistic positions in the government. The so- this also raised considerable suspicions Merdeka (Freedom) daily that later gave called “conspiracy” lay in Berkeley’s role in about FEUI’s loyalty, the Foundation and all Ransom’s thesis its curious staying power. “training most of the key Indonesians who the contracting universities refused to In January 1974, when anti-foreign would seize government power to put their retreat. In his 1965 report for the demonstrations in Jakarta reached their pro-American lessons into practice.” Foundation, consultant Richard Dye spoke peak and Indonesian army intelligence But history is often simpler and less glowingly of the dedication of two men in needed a scapegoat, the article became the devious than it may seem. In fact the particular, and Subroto, basis for accusations that “radical international educational exchange may in keeping FEUI going during Sumitro’s socialists” were behind a grand plan to have had several beginnings. absence. echoed this discredit the government, with Soedjatmoko It could, for instance, have started with exact sentiment almost 40 years later. cast in the role of “mastermind.” a few books. In 1950, the Berkeley student A decade elapsed between the time the The Ramparts attack was spicy, body had collected books for UGM in Berkeley Mafia first went off to study and entertaining, and persuasive in the way of . The students sought Ford when they became Indonesia’s economic most sensational pieces. But there were Foundation money to ship the books. Ford tsars – a long time, some might say, to holes in the argument. Ransom did not take said fine, but since the students had no sustain a ‘conspiracy’ to control the fate of sufficient care to distinguish among the corporate entity, the money had to be given a nation. As Berkeley’s Bruce Glassburner alleged parties. He ignored the fact that the through the university. Plain and simple. noted, “We were neither that diabolical nor Foundation’s entire extensive program of It could also have started with Michael that clairvoyant.”