Book summary

Dwight Eisenhower made an issue of the "loss" of China during the 1952 presidential campaign. That Truman could have prevented the Communist takeover in China without a massive commitment of resources to the Nationalists or even with such a commitment was unlikely, but this did not prevent the Republicans from making the "loss" of China a major campaign issue. Eisenhower was then obligated to prevent the "loss" of any other countries to communism once he was in office, which led to a number of covert operations in Southeast Asia during his administration. This book is a detailed account of one facet of that policy, the U.S. involvement in Indonesia. The civil war in Indonesia, which the U.S. encouraged, resulted in the deaths of thousands of Indonesians. But unlike Vietnam, no Americans died, so it never became a major domestic policy issue.

Media reviews

"One of the most important, dramatic and...shocking accounts to emerge from the Cold War. No one knows American policies toward Southeast Asia better than the Kahins."