The Jakarta Method
by Vincent Bevins · first published 2020
70% recommend30% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Meticulously sourced account of US backing for Indonesia's 1965 anticommunist mass killings and how the pattern was reused in Latin America; suits readers wanting context on Cold War interventions and regime change.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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.
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I recently read the book The Jakarta Method and it was extremely eye-opening. I'd previously heard a very abridged account of what happened in Indonesia in the 60s from Chomsky, but this book goes and examines how the same pattern was intentionally…
on “The Pentagon uses a secret program to wage proxy wars” ↗…slaughter of half a million suspected communists. In 1998 there was a huge series of riots against ethnic Chinese people, which ended up toppling the country’s dictator at the time. There's book called The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins that goes into this topic in detail. It's a very interesting (and tragic) read.
on “Indonesia: The most amazing development story on Earth?” ↗…reading both historical and economically focused works to get a more nuanced view than the one that you've laid out. For a few suggestions: On historical critiques of the US-centric perspective: The Jakarta Method, Vincent Bevins The Darker Nations, Vijay Prashad A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn Economic works: Competing Economic Theories, Richard Wolff Seventeen Contradictions and the…
…fascinatingly detailed picture of how, in practical terms, you go about toppling a popular foreign leader. It all starts with spreading around money and maybe arranging a couple of assassinations. "The Jakarta Method" by Vincent Bevins delves into how the CIA adapted and shifted course to address some of the weaknesses of its in-plain-sight coup approach in Iran and Guatemala in the 1950s. The ideal is always to preserve…
on “'Coup 53' tells the story of 1953 campaign by MI6 and CIA to oust Iran's leader” ↗…strawmanning, the joke is on you for not accepting the evidence. try to open your eyes to the murderous hypocrisy and deep-rooted racism of Global North/Western imperialism. https://jacobinmag.com/2020/06/jakarta-method-vincent-bevins...
on “The Backdoor That Keeps Russian Oil Flowing into Europe” ↗I'd like to recommend this book: The Jakarta Method[0]. Essentially, the US aided in the dismantling of a free democratic society in favor of a coup and a military dictatorship. Examples of the same being done in other countries are also provided. This…
on “Indonesia bans forced religious attire in schools” ↗What do you think has been happening for the past couple centuries in the Congo (and various other countries of the global south)? US imperialism is alive and well and The Jakarta Method [1] by Vincent Bevins is a damning account of it from the cold war to present day. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jakarta_Method
on “War Is a Racket (1935)” ↗…https://bookshop.org/p/books/severance-ling-ma/9880874 - Ripe, about the artifice of Silicon Valley and its human cost - https://bookshop.org/p/books/ripe-sarah-rose-etter/18992345 Non-fiction: - The Jakarta Method, on US foreign policy (really should be required reading for every US citizen) - https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-jakarta-method-washington-s... - Poverty, by America, which is in some ways a cathartic…
on “Ask HN: Any interesting books you have read lately?” ↗Read the Jakarta Method: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53054943-the-jakarta-met...
on “Trump's Police Are Now Disappearing Students for Their Op-Eds” ↗…it with more or less success. You mean like in Chile and Indonesia where there were legitimately elected leaders who we got kicked out of power leading to mass killings? I recommend a book called The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins. It really knocked me back and was a pretty sad story.
on “A statement about why RightsCon 2026 will not take place in Zambia” ↗A book 'The Jakarta Method' by Vincent Bevis is a great exploration of those events and similar cases of deliberate destruction of the independent third world.
on “I can't stop thinking about Papua New Guinea” ↗…'brainiest' is just a straight propaganda. Healthy democracies do not rely on student-led protests to overthrow the government. Someone was behind it and they got what they paid for. https://www.amazon.com/Jakarta-Method-Washingtons-Anticommun...
on “Serbia just elected the world's brainiest parliament” ↗Recently read both Legacy of Ashes and The Jakarta Method. The declassified documents directly from the CIA should damn them to the grave. The United States in the post WW2 period turned rightful fear and skepticism of the USSR into violent paranoia, subverting…
on “The CIA Rebrands with a New Website” ↗I would nightly recommend ”The Jakarta Method”, published last year, and a very personal telling of the CIA’s support of the mass-murder program in Indonesia in the 1960’s (and then how this tactic was reused in a few other coups in Latin America…
on “A Timeline of CIA Atrocities (1993)” ↗…your discovery I suggest reading two meticulously sourced books, which will open your eyes and give you further avenues for research whether or not you agree with the perspective of the authors: The Jakarta Method: Washington's Anticommunist Crusade and the Mass Murder Program that Shaped Our World The Devil's Chessboard: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government
on “Why has Google hired so many ex-CIA agents to run its most important operations” ↗