Economists with Guns

Bradley R. Simpson is Assistant Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University. He is also the director of a National Security Archive project to declassify U.S. documents concerning Indonesia and East Timor during the reign of General Suharto (1965-1998).

"Bradley R. Simpson's outstanding new book, Economists with Guns, provides chilling new evidence of American complicity with what the CIA itself referred to as 'the worst mass killings' since the era of Hitler and Stalin Simpson's book is highly significant in one other respect: it shows the perils of authoritarian models of economic development and the fallaciousness of the military modernization theories promoted by Kennedy-era intellectuals, which continue to hold some credence among foreign policy elites today." —History News Network "Simpson's book constitutes an important addition to our knowledge of the global Cold War. It is based on meticulous archival research, frames its detailed finding within a larger argument and is written in a direct and accessible prose style. This text will be of interest to scholars and students of U.S. foreign policy, the international Cold War, and the modern history of Southeast Asia and Indonesia."—Edward Aspinall, American Historical Review. "Based upon a remarkable wealth of recently declassified U.S. government documents, this meticulous study permits both new insights into well-known events and revelations of unknown events. A major contribution to the study of Indonesia's postcolonial history and to the field of U.S. Cold War diplomacy, it will remain a standard reference work for many years to come." —John Roosa, University of British Columbia "The author successfully applies the ideas of modernization theory to the Indonesian case, tracing America's ideologically informed notions of Indonesia's place in the regional and world economy. This comprehensive work offers a valuable new perspective." —Matthew Jones, University of Nottingham

• Contents Acknowledgmentsx Introduction1 Chapter 1Imagining Indonesian Development000 Chapter 2The Kennedy Administration Confronts Indonesia000 Chapter 3Developing a Counterinsurgency State: The Kennedy Administration and Military Modernization in Indonesia000 Chapter 4The Road from Stabilization to Confrontation000 Chapter 5From High Hopes to Low Profile: The Johnson Administration Confronts Indonesia000 Chapter 6Indonesia's Year of Living Dangerously000 Chapter 7The September 30th Movement and the Destruction of the PKI000 Chapter 8Economists with Guns: Washington Embraces the New Order 000 Conclusion 000 Abbreviations000 Notes000 Works Cited000 Index000