The Brothers by Stephen Kinzer

Author:Stephen Kinzer [Kinzer, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781429953528
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Published: 2013-09-30T21:00:00+00:00

8

THE SELF-INTOXICATED PRESIDENT

Rarely has a head of state anticipated a visit to the United States as eagerly as President Sukarno of Indonesia. American history fascinated him. As a boy he spent long evenings in imaginary conversations with Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln. In his speech opening the Bandung Conference on April 18, 1955, he summoned Asian and African leaders to “the battle against colonialism,” and then asked them, “Do you know that today is a famous anniversary in that battle? On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere rode at midnight through the New England countryside warning of the approach of British troops and the opening of the American War of Independence, the first successful anti-colonial war in history.”

Sukarno spent much of his time crisscrossing Indonesia on trips that often lasted weeks, leaving little time for foreign travel. In 1956, however, after he had been in power for seven years and become one of the world’s most magnetic leaders, he expressed interest in visiting the United States. John Foster Dulles was dubious. He detested Sukarno, not only for his neutralist politics but also for his personal style, which was unabashedly hedonistic and featured a parade of wives and girlfriends. Nonetheless, this towering figure was a strategic prize. Foster overcame his doubts and recommended that Eisenhower invite him.

“As the leader and personification of his people’s struggle for independence, President Sukarno occupies a position of unique power and influence in Indonesia, the largest and most populous nation of Southeast Asia,” he wrote in a memo to the president. “His lifetime efforts to separate Indonesia from Dutch political and economic influence have biased his attitude toward many aspects of Western economic and political development.… I believe that we may broaden his outlook and increase his understanding by a visit to the United States.”

Foster and Vice President Nixon were at National Airport to greet Sukarno when he arrived on May 16, 1956. The Indonesian leader was elegant as always in an impeccably tailored tunic, black felt cap, sunglasses, and inlaid baton. When he saw the animated crowd—twenty-five thousand people turned out to greet him—he broke away from his bodyguards and plunged in, shaking hands, kissing, and even squatting to introduce himself to a small boy wearing a cowboy outfit. Finally he returned to protocol, and rode with the secretary of state and the vice president to the White House. Eisenhower was waiting at the portico.

Their meeting was pleasant, though the two leaders did not resolve their differences. Sukarno objected to American support for the Dutch claim to western New Guinea, which Indonesia also claimed. Eisenhower, following Foster’s advice, made no concessions and did not offer Sukarno any new aid. The two leaders lapsed into small talk. Eisenhower revealed that his favorite actor was Randolph Scott—not surprising, since many of Scott’s films, like Frontier Marshal and The Stranger Wore a Gun, placed him in the role Eisenhower imagined as his own: a morally centered lawman who reluctantly uses violence to pacify dangerous places.

That evening, at a state dinner, Sukarno spoke warmly of the United States.

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