Surrendering to Symbols

This book traces US policy towards Indonesia in the vital years 1961-1965, a period which defined the cold war power balance in Southeast Asia.

Set against a bleak background of an Indonesia spiralling out of Western influence and into a war with the Netherlands, John F. Kennedy and his staff sought to keep Indonesia friendly by all means available to them. The loss of Indonesia to communist Chinese or Soviet influence, would be "the greates loss since the fall of China", the US administration worried.


This book tells the of how the US sought to turn policy in Indonesia westwards , and how they in the end ended up with winning "the other war in Southeast Asia".
A sober an academic account, this book is a thorough introduction to this crucial turning point in pacific cold war history.