S7: Episode 24 - Vincent Bevins

Rania Khalek and Kevin Gosztola welcome Vincent Bevins, the author of The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program That Shaped Our World, to discuss his book. He was the Brazil correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and the southeast Asia correspondent for the Washington Post. As Bevins contends, United States-backed violence that occurred in Brazil and Indonesia in 1964 and 1965 "greatly reshaped the world." He examines the dark history and legacy of anticommunism in two of the most populous countries. Bevins offers a brief overview of the politics in Indonesia and the Third World and how there really wasn't any opposition or fear of communism until it was fueled by the U.S. and factions within the Indonesian military. Sukarno was removed from power in a CIA coup and replaced by Suharto. Bevins highlights who each of these figures were and describes the massacres that occurred. Later in the interview, Bevins offers his view on the parallels between the 1960s and now. He comments on the economic warfare that was used against Indonesia, U.S. training of military officers from Indonesia, and the way in which the U.S. media justified the bloodshed that occurred.