Indonesia and small wars in Southeast Asia-Post WWII?

[jmm99]

I'd suggest it's fair to say:

1. Indonesia was more important than Indochina (Vietnam) by an order or more of magnitude; and

2. What happened in Indonesia in 1965-1966 (extermination of the Indonesian Communist Party) was a material (if not the most important) factor in what happened to Southeast Asia after that.

See, this SWC post, They Never Fail To Hyperbolate .... , and its continuation; and Indonesian killings of 1965–66 (Wiki).

That leads to two questions in considering the Vietnam War's history, revisionist history, counter-revisionist history, revisionist-counter-revisionist history, etc. ad nauseum:

1. What (if any) causal effect did the actual US 1964-1965 Vietnam combat units intervention have with respect to the Indonesian killings of 1965–1966.

2. With respect to the sundry alternate COAs (counter-factual histories) offered for Vietnam at SWC and elsewhere (changing events during the period 1945-1965 would be most critical, but changed events after 1965 might also play), what would their effects have been on Indonesia in particular and Southeast Asia in general.

He or she who wants to revisit and revise history has some obligation to sketch the future altered by the pet revision - and consider higher order effects, albeit a difficult, wicked problem.

All of that has much to do with current affairs - the search for lessons learned in the aftermath of two failures in nation-building Iraq and Astan - whether also a general failure in Southwest Asia remains to be seen.

A second reason to look at the Indonesian killings of 1965–66 is to face up to the reality of a lot of killings - with the face up requiring us to take ourselves (in our minds) totally outside the kinder and gentler society in which most of us in the US live.

A recent documentary, The Act of Killing, presents the oral histories (and re-enactments) of over 40 of the 1965-1966 Indonesian killers. The DVD is listed on Amazon-UK as being available in Nov 2013 (region 2 only)

Indonesia- New documentary film on mass killings stirs memories (short trailer 2.5 min.)

101 East : Indonesia's Killing Fields (long trailer 25 min.)

Both interviews with the filmmaker Josh Oppenheimer are worth a look

Interview with The Act of Killing film maker: Joshua Oppenheimer (36 min.)

DP/30: The Act of Killing, documentarian Joshua Oppenheimer (42 min.)

Of obvious relevance to the just war theories (NB: plural usage) and command responsibility.

Regards

Mike