The Jakarta Method

Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World

by Vincent Bevins

Paperback, 340 pages

English language

Published 2021 by PublicAffairs.

ISBN:: 978-1-5417-2400-6
OCLC Number:: 1195467806

(20 reviews)

In 1965, the U.S. government helped the Indonesian military kill approximately one million innocent civilians. This was one of the most important turning points of the twentieth century, eliminating the largest communist party outside China and the Soviet Union and inspiring copycat terror programs in faraway countries like Brazil and Chile. But these events remain widely overlooked, precisely because the CIA's secret interventions were so successful.

In this bold and comprehensive new history, Vincent Bevins builds on his incisive reporting for the Washington Post, using recently declassified documents, archival research and eye-witness testimony collected across twelve countries to reveal a shocking legacy that spans the globe. For decades, it's been believed that parts of the developing world passed peacefully into the U.S.-led capitalist system. The Jakarta Method demonstrates that the brutal extermination of unarmed leftists was a fundamental part of Washington's final triumph in the Cold War.

5 editions

Iara VPS reviewed The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins

Um grande trabalho jornalístico

5 stars

O livro narra como a violência foi empregada na Ásia e na América Latina (com apoio dos EUA) para exterminar comunistas reais e imaginários. Obviamente é impossível dizer como estaríamos hoje se as coisas tivessem sido diferentes, se os governos de Sukarno, Goulart, Allende e tantos outros não tivessem sido sabotados, se pessoas que sonhavam com um mundo melhor não tivessem sido condenadas e mortas por esse crime. Mas esse livro me fez pensar nos futuros que nos foram negados...

Martinza reviewed The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins

Review of 'The Jakarta Method' on 'Storygraph'

4 stars

Covers a very wide range of events and connects them. Therefore, it doesn’t go much into detail. A mix of history research and witness interviews

Lily reviewed The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins

Review of 'The Jakarta Method' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is a book which everyone should read, but it is a difficult book to read. The details of this book are soul crushing and disturbing but it is something everyone should know.

One thing I really appreciate about this book is its focus on survivor testimony. It is often the case when we hear about an atrocity, we cannot grasp the humanity of its victims. This book, thru interviews, completely avoids that problem allowing/forcing the reader to understand the victims as something other than a statistic.

hunterowens reviewed The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins

midcentury reading month

4 stars

paired w/ quiet americans, very good read and upsetting as fuck, how we bury history and negate what happened.

Hugh reviewed The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins

Review of 'The Jakarta Method' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Sheds a lot of light on violent imperialism in the mid-late 20th century that was just conveniently omitted from my western textbooks. This is the kind of book that I want to send to my friends, family, and parents, and say "wow, how did we miss all this?". Of course, I know the answer - people don't want to have to confront this. Bump this to the top of your reading lists.